Maria marches ahead
Sharapova advances; Cilic knocked out in first round of Rome Open
Rome, May 12: Maria Sharapova opened her bid for a third Italian Open title with a win over 52ndranked Jarmila Gajdosova on Tuesday.
The third-seeded Sharapova was leading 62, 3-1 when her Australian opponent retired with an apparent injury.
Sharapova won back-toback titles at the Foro Italico in 2011 and 2012. She is coming off a loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Madrid Open semifinals.
Organizers did not immediately say why Gajdosova retired.
In men’s action on the red clay, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain beat U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-3.
MURRAY YET TO DECIDE ON PLAYING AT ROME
Andy Murray was reportedly ready to make a decision on whether to take part in the Italian Open after completing the best week of his career on clay with his first two titles on the surface.
Murray’s comprehensive 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Spanish ace Rafael Nadal in the final in Madrid on Sunday knocked the king of clay down to seventh on the ATP list, his lowest position in a decade.
Murray and his team were seriously discussing the pros and cons of playing in Rome, after their man won trophies in Munich and Madrid in the space of seven days.
Should he decide to play, Murray will open in the second round against Jeremy Chardy of France.
The third-ranked Scot could not have asked for a better French Open preparation and might not want to risk either injury or fatigue with Roland Garros starting in 13 days.
“I’m training again and will decide later,” said last week's Munich and Madrid champion whose pair of titles marked a personal breakthrough on the clay.
“It’s been a long couple of weeks, but I wanted to train and see how my legs felt,” he explained.
It’s a different story completely for Nadal, who desperately needs matches and confidence after going down in front of his home public to Murray in a Madrid final which did not even extend to 90 minutes.
Nadal insisted he feels his tennis is on the right path despite not having won a spring clay title.
“I’m already thinking in Rome, it’s an important change. You change from playing with altitude to no altitude there,” the Spaniard said.
“I’ll try to have a good week in Rome — and by a good week, that does not mean only to win. That means to do things good through the different days. Doing things well every single day, that’s a good week,” Nadal further added.
Nadal called the event “a very complicated tournament, we have the top players there. But I also know if I manage to play the level I did (in the Madrid semifinals) yesterday I can be competitive against every single player”.
The 14-time Grand Slam champion is set to play in an 11th straight edition at the Foro Italico and has played the final nine times in 10 visits.