The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Smooth sailing for Sharapova

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 03, 2008
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Smooth sailing for Sharapova

S.V. Sriram

Hong Kong: The opening ceremony was quick and smooth. What followed was shorter and smoother! World No. 5 and the tournament second seed, Maria Sharapova, lived up to her top-drawer billing as she disposed of the 62nd ranked Caroline Wozniacki in double quick time to get her new season into top gear.

The Dane had no clue as to what hit her as the Russian cantered to a 6-2, 6-2 victory in the JB Group Classic tennis tournament that began at the Victoria Park here on Wednesday.

While Sharapova was hardly tested by the Danish teenager, the late night match between third seed Anna Chakvetadze of Russia and Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova was a more evenly contested encounter.

Chakvetadze finally prevailed 6-4, 6-3. Hantuchova, who at one stage was down 4-1 in the second set, pulled back two games but it was not enough to stop Chakvetadze.

The Russian’s domination was so total that Wozniacki, the surprise winner of the Silver Group here in 2007, managed to win her first game only after 27 minutes into the first set.

And even there, Wozniacki managed to squander a 40-love lead before serving her second ace of the set to win the game.

Everything that the Russian diva is known for was in place. The grunts grew in decibels as she started getting into her stride followed by the clenched fists after winning every point.

Error-prone and short of ideas, Wozniacki seemed to be living on hope and a prayer that her higher-ranked opponent would commit a blunder.

Sharapova, however, had words of encouragement for the Danish teen.

“She has a lot of potential. This tournament will be a great learning experience for her. I too first came to this tournament as a 15-year-old. The whole experience of playing with the top stars, the media and fan attention is a great learning curve.”

On her own game, the Russian said, “I was pretty happy with my game today. I played some good shots today. I recently had the best off season of my career”.

“After a few injuries my game was like in stop-go-stop mode. It was like there was a big stop sign in front of me.

Racing to leads

On Wednesday evening all that seemed to a thing of the past as Sharapova raced to a 4-0 lead in both the sets.

Coming up to the net only thrice during the entire first set, Sharapova controlled the game from the baseline. She toyed with the 17-year-old, stayed at the baseline and made her opponent run around the court.

The result: Maria Sharapova bt Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-2; Anna Chavtadze bt Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-3.

Doubles: Elena Dementieva and M. Larcher de Brito bt Ana Ivanovic and Peng Shuai 8-2.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport