contentAnna Kournikova’s countrywoman, Maria Sharapova, made her way to round no. 3 in Toronto yesterday by getting better of Garbine Muguruza of Spain. The Russian star hadn’t started the match in the best possible way, but, she got herself back on track from the second set onwards and ended up securing the win.
In her next match, Sharapova will be up against another Spanish player i.e. Carla Suarez Navarro.
Speaking in the post match press conference, Sharapova said, “It was my first competitive match in a while. So, it took me a bit of time to get going.”
“The match atmosphere is completely different. You can practice as much as you want, but, still, when you go into a match and that too after a gap, you find it a little hard at the start.”
“As the match goes on, you start getting in rhythm and playing well. You draw a little bit of inspiration from the surroundings as well.”
The number of unforced errors committed by Sharapova in the opening set was quite high and as a result, she got absolutely thrashed in that set. But, as the great players do quite often, they try to just stay in the game when they feel that they are not playing well. Sharapova did exactly that. She just hanged in there and seized big points to get into a winning position.
Sharapova, however, knows that there is work for her to do ahead of the next match. She admitted that while answering one of the questions.
The 27-year old said, “I need improvement. I know that. But, I am happy that I didn’t give up today after a poor start. If you stay alive in the competition, you always have the opportunity to raise your game.”