Brisbane: Top seed Maria Sharapova began her 2015 campaign in ruthless fashion as she brushed aside Yaroslava Shvedova 6-0, 6-1 in the second round of the Brisbane International on Tuesday. Sharapova dominated her opponent in every department as she raced through the first set in just 23 minutes. Shvedova, a qualifier from Kazakhstan, offered more resistance in the second but was no match for the World No 2 Sharapova had not played a competitive match since the WTA Finals in October.
But there were no signs of rust as she cruised into the quarterfinals. “It certainly felt good to start (well) after not playing a match for a couple of months,” Sharapova said. “Despite all the training, it’s such a different feeling to go out on the court and play in front of a crowd in an actual match atmosphere. I wanted to start off sharp and try to do the right things,’ she added.
Earlier, Angelique Kerber crushed Daria Gavrilova 6-3, 7-5. Sania, Hsieh pair advance in doubles Indian tennis star Sania Mirza began the 2015 season and her partnership with Su-Wei Hsieh with a hard fought 7-5 6-3 win over Jarmila Gajdosova and Ajla Tomljanovic. The top-seeded Indo-Taipei pair got the better of unseeded Australian-Croatian pair in one hour and 10 minutes. In the quarterfinals of the of the USD 1,000,000 premier WTA event, Sania and Hsieh face Anastasia and Arina Rodionova.
