Maria Sharapova experienced little trouble during her dominating 6-2, 6-1, win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
The first match of the day on Rod Laver Arena proved to be a routine one that lasted barely 90 minutes. It featured the loud grunting Russian against a relative unknown in her opponent. Sasnovich, who’s currently ranked #105, achieved a minor upset against the #91 Rodina in the previous round. Sharapova however is a stratosphere up in the rankings at #5. This was their first meeting.
The overwhelming underdog had no lack of confidence coming into this match, but her game was easily overwhelmed by the big hitting Sharapova. Right from the start, points were kept quite short as Maria raced out to an early break to go up 2-0. Sasnovich has a big wind up on her forehand side, which failed to make a statement. But the bigger issue was her weak serving, which is a common weakness that plagues the womens’ side. About only 15 minutes into the match, Sharapova was able to consolidate her break to go up 3-0. The points continued to play out like a textbook, which allowed the tall Russian to step in closer to the baseline and take the ball early. Instead of switching up her strategy, Sasnovich continued her attempts to outhit Maria. In this battle of power vs. power it was obvious who would prevail. Indeed, Sharapova quickly arrived at 5-1. Here some nerves seemed to set in as the Russian imitated her opponent by throwing in a double fault of her own on set point. On the 3rd break point, she then missed a backhand crosscourt wide to gift the game away. Her composure and veteran match experience returned however, complete with a clever drop shot that opened up the court for another set point. Maria then pummeled a forehand winner to wrap up the set.
The 2nd set opened with Sasnovich switching to a newly strung frame, but her strategy remained the same, which drew the same results. Growing more comfortable, Maria even ventured up to net, only to lose the point there. Nevertheless, she continued to hold serve easily, consolidating for 3-0 again. There was never any sense of danger as she rarely faced break point. On the other hand, Sasnovich almost always began each service game from behind down 0-15, and struggled to hold. She finally secured the 4th game, but Sharapova responded with another easy service game to go up 2 breaks. As if realizing her window of opportunity was running out, Sasnovich finally switched things up, but it was too little too late. Her dropshot fell into the net, and Maria then proceeded to crush a return winner for a 5-1 lead. The Russian wasted no time by converting the first of 2 match points to end the match. Her next round opponent is Lauren Davis of USA.
Following her dominating win, the world No.5 said that she was happy with her performance in her first meeting with Sasnovich.
“It’s great to be back on this court after such a good run (to the final) last year,” said Sharapova.
“It was an opponent I had never faced before which is always tricky and I’m happy I got there.”
Match highlights
