Former world number one Maria Sharapova successfully relaunched her singles tennis career on Monday.
Sharapova, who received a wild card into the Warsaw Open, defeated Tathiana Garbin 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-3 in her first round match.
This was Sharapova’s first singles win on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour since beating Marta Domachowska on July 30, 2008 in the first round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada.
Sharapova needed three sets to shake off the rust from her lengthy injury layoff after having shoulder surgery last fall.
She posted nine double faults, but still ended the match with an overall 72% first serve percentage.
I am glad to see Maria back and successfully winning her first-round match. I look forward even more so to seeing her in the up-coming grand slam mix to shake things up a bit.
Yeah! It is nice to have some ‘older’, experienced players around to keep the young whipper snappers in line….