Former world number one Maria Sharapova struggled but still managed to win her first round match at the Bank of the West Classic against Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 on Monday. The $700,000 WTA Premier event is currently held at Stanford, California.
Sharapova, now ranked 62nd in the world, won her 12th out of 16th matches following her comeback last May.
“I had a pretty slow start and made a good effort to get back in the first set. I thought it was a good second set and I had a chance to close out the match, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. In the third set I didn’t do too many things wrong. I really stepped it up and was steady,” the Russian said after the match.
Other Monday night winners include third-seed Elena Dementieva, fifth-seed Nadia Petrova and seventh-seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
The tournament is led by the Williams sisters who could possibility meet in the finals should the seedings hold.
