Sharapova takes stab at slaying Wozniacki

MELBOURNE, Australia — A side effect of not playing much for Maria Sharapova is the likelihood of having to face highly ranked rivals in the first week of a major.

It doesn’t come much tougher in the third round than a match against the defending champion.

That’s the equation at the Australian Open after Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki beat Swedish players in straight sets on the same court — technically on different days.

The third-ranked Wozniacki had a 6-1, 6-3 win over Johanna Larsson to finish the day session on Margaret Court Arena before the sun went down. No. 30 Sharapova finished off Rebecca Peterson 6-2, 6-1 a half-hour past midnight, having waited for a five-set men’s match to finish.

“It’ll be a tough one, but I’ve set up the challenge — willing to go out there and take it,” Sharapova told the crowd, after reminding them it was well past her bed time.

Sharapova, 31, leads 6-4 in career head-to-heads, but they haven’t played each other since 2015. Wozniacki, 28, has won both previous times they have met at Grand Slams — in the fourth round of the U.S. Open in 2010 and 2014.

Sharapova has won five Grand Slam titles, including two as a teenager. Wozniacki’s 2018 win in at Melbourne Park was her first major title after losses in two U.S. Open finals.

Sharapova hasn’t been past the quarterfinals of a major since returning at the 2017 U.S. Open after an absence of more than 1½ years because of a doping ban.

Asked if Wozniacki was the favorite to win, Sharapova chose her words carefully in response: “I mean, relatively speaking on paper, if you’re looking at numbers, yeah, absolutely.”