World number 4 and three time Grand Slam singles champion Maria Sharapova followed the lesser blonde Russian Maria onto court for her first clash of the Open. She faced Gisela Dulko, more famous for her fabulous doubles exploits in recent years, but a fine singles player in her own right.
It took one game for Maria to signal her intentions, and those were to make as much noise as possible while destroying an Argentine girl in the process. As far as I know Gisela had done nothing to offend Maria but nonetheless she was the target for all the venom and fire that the Sharapova bag of tricks can produce.
The Sharapova serve served her well and the forehand winners simply overwhelmed a shell shocked Dulko - thankfully she has doubles with which to look forward, and there are few players with the recent record in that version of the game as Gisela.
Cross court, down the line, any way past Dulko that Maria chose, this tennis came from the top shelf. Possibly it put Li Na's performance 24 hours earlier into perspective. Sharapova's domination was complete, whereas Li Na however impressive her display, was placed in the shade by what Sharapova brought to the court today.
Of course the constant screams from Maria tend to taint the pure class of the racquet work but we have learned to live with that needlessness.
Gisela finally did put a 1 next to her name but it was a lone figure and insufficient to upset the joyous victor. Maria 6-0 6-1.
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