The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Sharapova sweeps into round two
Had he held his own serve then, things might have been different, but Robredo broke, took the set and went on to clinch victory after two hours and 53 minutes.
Ward believes he still has time on his side to achieve his goals, saying: “I’m 27, I’m not 32. People sometimes forget that.
“I’ve got a coach now who knows the game. I’m looking forward to working with him and seeing how the rest of the year goes.”
Ward will now begin practising on grass. He is still to decide whether to play in next week’s A egon Trophy in Nottingham. MA RIA SHA RA POVA once again showed the remarkable turnaround in her clay-court game as she cruised into the second round of the French Open.
The 2012 champion shrugged off an hour-long rain delay to defeat fellow Russian Ksenia Pervak 6-1 6-2 in 61 minutes.
Sharapova, who in 2007 described herself as ‘a cow on ice’ when playing on clay, would never have imagined that seven years later it would become her most successful surface.
Five of her last six titles have come on clay, including her only Grand Slam since 2008, while, until losing to A na Ivanovic in Rome earlier this month, she had gone unbeaten on the surface against every player apart from Serena Williams for three years.
Williams remains the major obstacle, though, and they are likely to meet in the quarter-f inals next week in a rematch of last year’s final.
Sharapova said: “The clay was very difficult for me, because I had never had mental confidence that I was able to play a threehour match and have the opportunity to play in the semi-finals or finals.
“I wouldn’t say I was physically weak, but I didn’t recover that well and I wasn’t strong enough.
“It took me years to build that confidence in my body and my legs getting stronger and recovering on the court to make it a surface that I actually loved playing on.
“I think it was one of the biggest individual goals I had, because I realised that I needed to do something about it and I think I just took it upon myself.”
Sharapova is seeded only seventh this year, partly because of shoulder problems at the end of 2013 that brought an early end to her season.
The Russian had to completely remodel her serve after shoulder surgery in 2008 and she revealed new coach Sven Groeneveld has helped her tweak it again.
She said: “Once Sven got on board we worked on a few things just to modify — nothing drastic, but a little thing here and there.”
Former US Open champion Sam Stosur dropped just two games against Monica Puig, despite five stitches in her leg from an accident in the gym on Wednesday night.
The 19th seed said: “I can’t feel anything when I’m playing, thankfully. The stitches are fine. It’s healing well.”
Eighteenth seed Eugenie Bouchard made a fine start to her tournament, thrashing Shahar Peer 6-0 6-2.
The Canadian only arrived in Paris on Saturday after winning the first WTA Tour title of her career in Nuremberg.
She said: “It was tough, for sure. I flew right after the final and had one day of practice. But that’s always a good problem to have.
“I feel like I’m playing well, so I’m just trying to keep the flow going.”
A ustralian Open runnerup Dominika Cibulkova and f ifth seed Petra Kvitova were both straightsets winners, while there were also victories for Sabine Lisicki, Flavia Pennetta, A lize Cornet, A ndrea Petkovic and 18-year-old Ta y l o r Townsend on her Grand S lam debut.
Fourth seed Simona Halep opens proceedings today on Court Philippe Chatrier against A lisa Kleybanova, while 11th seed A na Ivanovic meets rising French star Caroline Garcia.
A ustralian Open champion and second seed Li Na is on Suzanne Lenglen against Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Wozniacki plays her first match since breaking up with f iance Rory McIlroy against Yanina Wickmayer.