Fourth seed Maria Sharapova showed few signs of the shoulder injury that threatened to wreck her Australian Open campaign as she breezed to a 6-2 6-1 first-round win over Sandra Kloesel on Monday.
Sharapova crushed the unseeded German in 59 minutes on Rod Laver Arena, the Russian 18-year-old slamming a service winner past Kloesel on the final point.
The 2004 Wimbledon winner, who briefly held the number one spot last year, had been under a cloud because of a shoulder injury and a lack of match practice as she sought to better her performance in reaching the Melbourne semi-finals last year.
But Sharapova shrugged off those concerns with a confident display, breaking Kloesel's serve twice in each set and keeping a clean slate on her own serve.
In the second round of the Australian Open Maria will play Ashley Harkleroad of the United States. Maria has played Harkleroad once before at Wimbledon in 2003 and won 6-2 6-1.
January 16th, 2006
Posted by: Marco
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