Shamed Sharapova seals first title in two years
IT HAS taken nearly six months after she made her comeback from a ban for a doping offence, but Maria Sharapova has got her hands on her first WTA Tour title since the spring of 2015. And if she manages to follow it up with success at this week’s Kremlin Cup, the 30-year-old Russian will have rounded off 2017 by sounding an ominous warning to rivals for next season. The Moscow event will be her last of the regular circuit, but she goes into it with her ranking up to No 57 following her 15-month suspension for using meldonium. At the very least, there should be no more squabbles over wildcards in 2018. Yesterday in China, Sharapova took the Tianjin Open title with a 7-5, 7-6 victory over little-known Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, ranked 102 before this event. It was not a trophy to compare to the Italian Open she won in May 2015, but it will still be a huge morale boost to the Russian, whose comeback has been interrupted by injuries that saw her miss Wimbledon. Her biggest win in ranking terms in Tianjin was that over world No 25 Peng Shuai, but she will be heartened at reeling off the five wins necessary to put her back in the winner’s circle. With Serena Williams on a very tight schedule to make January’s Australian Open — it will come only four-and-a- half months after she gave birth to her first child — it is not hard to see Sharapova being a factor in Melbourne. The current world No 1 Simona Halep has not won a Grand Slam and nor has the player who held the position after Wimbledon, Karolina Pliskova. Sharapova needed to come back from 4-1 down in both sets before overcoming 19-year-old Sabalenka 10-8 in the second-set tiebreak.