Maria Sharapova edges a tough customer in the Roland Garros opener.
Kaia Kanepi didn’t win many tournaments in her career (4), but she is used to having good runs at slams and she is a threat for everybody. Maria had a neat performance against the Estonian to win 6-2 6-4. Match Stats.
Things got a bit tense in the second set when Maria had to recover from a 0-30 deficit on a 4-all score-line. Eventually the Russian held her service game to then achieve the decisive break soon after.
Sharapova: I am overall happy
Of the biggest threats for Maria was a cold that she is still fighting “I’m getting over it, and hopefully it will pass by soon. But obviously it was such a big occasion for me to be back out on center court, and I had a tough opponent ahead of me. And the conditions were pretty difficult as well. So I knew it wasn’t just going to depend on the tennis today.
Overall I’m just happy I got through it and have a day off tomorrow – I should be better by then.”
Next vs. Diatchenko
Maria will play Vitalia Diatchenko in the second round. They have never faced each other so far.
| MARIA STARTING STRONG |
| LOWER PART OF THE DRAW |
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