Maria Sharapova won her first match in five weeks at the BNP Paribas Open 2014 Indian Wells. The Russian defeated
Julia Goerges of Germany 6-1, 6-4.
The fourth-seed managed to hold eight of her service games despite committing seven double faults and did not produce any aces.
“The first matches are always tricky, especially having not played in a few weeks, indoor or outdoor,” Sharapova said. “She’s also a tricky opponent, and she’s capable of playing good tennis. She hasn’t been as consistent with her results as she probably would have liked to be recently, but she’s had her results and she’s beaten top players before, so it’s never easy facing her in your first match.”
Sharapova is a two-time champion at this event (2006 and 2013) and wants to continue producing stellar results at this Premier-level WTA event.
“I have played really well here, and I obviously hope to continue that,” she said. “You always start from scratch every year, but I always like to get here a little bit early and get used to the conditions. We are in a little bit of an altitude, not much, but the ball does fly somewhat in the first couple of days.
“Overall I feel like I did what I had to do, and I’ll step it up for the next ones.”
