Maria Sharapova did well in her first tournament back after injury, in Brisbane, to make the semis and lose to eventual winner Serena Williams, and she was expected to play a major role in second week hostilities at Melbourne Park. She would need to deal with the hurdle presented in the form of American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who has made it as far as 30 in the world and currently sits at 41. She defeated Agnieszka Radwanska in Sydney so Sharapova was not an impossible ask if everything clicked.
Maria began warily and had to rely on her second serve to see her through the opening game. Bethanie had some chances, but was unable to grab them.
Sharapova is one of the best at converting however.
The noisy Russian turned the heat squarely onto Bethanie who, unable to sustain the pressure, fell into successive bouts of error.
The Maria love train was in full voice as she steamed on 2-0 then quickly 3-0 with magnificent groundstrokes covering up some great stuff from Bethanie both from the back and at the net.
The American on serve found it harder to contain her nerves and made more mistakes at her second attempt to hold. When accurate, her shot making was great, but she was inconsistent, close to erratic, from the ground. Sharapova had a 4-0 advantage, and we were all resigned to an early finish to the match.
Against all the momentum Bethanie manufactured a service break, sealing it with some great forehands to which Sharapova had no adequate reply.
To make things even brighter, Bethanie even held serve for the first time in the match, and Sharapova had a 4-2 lead with just the single break.
It would be enough for Maria to stroll in to safety carrying the first set with her 6 games to 3, and well on the way to a second round berth.
Bethanie began set 2 in much better shape, and was able to exchange readily in hard hitting rallies with Maria. Didn't mean she would win all those points but at least she had Sharapova thinking. Despite a time violation and warning, plus a double fault, Maria held for 1-1. Then the break arrived - as if scripted Maria went up 2 or 3 gears, plus several decibels, and piled the pressure on an already pressured Bethanie.
At 2-1 Maria consolidated the break for the first time - it took an eternity to do it and she saved a lot of break points in the process - but at 3-2 Bethanie put her foot back in the door of the match by breaking the Sharapova serve.
Sharapova recovered her poise to level the set at 4-4, and then experience showed out as Bethanie led 30-0 and even 40-30 before her failings on service reappeared with two of the most untimely double faults imaginable.
Maria in fine voice wrapped up the match 6-3 6-4, but will need to find improvement in a number of areas if she is to seriously challenge for the title.
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