Maria Sharapova pushed to No.2

It could have been curtains for Maria Sharapova in round no. 2 itself, there at Melbourne Park yesterday.

She had been pushed right to the walls by her compatriot Alexandra Panova.

Sharapova had got into a situation where she had a couple of match points to save in the third set.

Thankfully, she lifted her game just in time and bagged a few key points there to break her opponent twice and avoid what could have been a big embarrassment.

To come into the tournament as frontrunner and then, to go down to a player holding the 150^th position in the world rankings, it would have been devastating for Sharapova.

She denied any such thing from happening though for the time being, but, she would know that she is not far away from a defeat if she plays this way.

It was lacklustre from Sharapova in the second set and in the first half of the third set to say the least.

Towards the end of the match, she seemed to wake up and played some good shots, but, when she looks back at this match, she would definitely feel that it was not one of her top notch performances.

Speaking to the press later on, Sharapova said, “Obviously it was not satisfying, my overall performance. I would have liked to have lesser number of unforced errors to my name. But, I somehow got the job done. There would be days when you don’t hit the ball as well as you need to, but, it’s important that you don’t give up.”

Competing against Sharapova in the next round would be the young sensation from Kazakhstan, Zarina Diyas. The 21-year old has taken the professional circuit by storm recently. She is world no. 31 at the moment.