TENNIS in DEPTH.

Maria Sharapova was seeking her revenge against Alona Bondarenko, and after a slow start she came back strong to post a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory.

It was good to get the win and get my revenge,” Sharapova said. “The second set I started serving a lot better and harder and I returned great and put a lot of pressure on her serve. Then I was able to get the break in the third set and keep the momentum going from the second.”

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Maria Sharapova will leave Warsaw satisfied with her first singles participation for 10 months. She played better than most of her supporters could have expected after such  long absence from competitive tennis. Her shoulder didn’t give her any pain, and that in itself should be most gratifying.

In her match today against a ‘hot’ Alona Bondarenko she showed just how rusty she really is, and it would be interesting to hear her take on her performance. She is her own worst critic and I’m sure she knows exactly what she needs to do to get back to the top.

The score was 6-2, 6-2, which would suggest that it was a one-sided match. In fact she hit too many errors, most forced by the powerful ground strokes by Alona, and she looked understandable tired. It was also interesting to see that after losing her service 3 times, she reverted back to her full service motion in the third set rather than the abbreviated version she had been using in her other 2 matches.

Whether she plays in next week’s Grand Slam in Paris or decides to opt for easier events to give herself more back to back matches is still a matter for conjecture.

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