Maria Sharapova was pleased to put an end to her four-match losing streak as the Russian eased past an exhausted Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-4, 6-1 to make the Madrid Open second round on Sunday.
Buzarnescu had a quick turnaround having played and lost the final in Prague on Saturday to Petra Kvitova and fell to Sharapova in 82 minutes on Estadio Arantxa Sanchez.
Sharapova, who came to Madrid with a mediocre 5-5 win-loss record this season, is ranked 53 in the world and hadn’t won a match since the Australian Open in January.
Pain in her forearm affected her form, and she lost her opening matches in Doha, Indian Wells and Stuttgart over the past couple of months.
The former world No. 1, who won the Madrid title in 2014, is still on the comeback trail, a year on from her return from a 15-month doping ban.
Last year, Sharapova wasn’t ranked high enough to make it into the French Open main draw and was in Madrid amid lots of suspense about whether organisers would grant her a wildcard. They ultimately denied her the opportunity to compete in Paris, a Slam she has won twice in her career.
This year, Sharapova is in the Roland Garros main draw by virtue of her ranking, and the commotion around her return from suspension has quietened down.
“You have to find the relevance to what you do. You have to put things in perspective. But you also have to want it,” Sharapova told reporters at the Caja Magica on Sunday.
“Of course, I want to be playing the French Open. That uncertainty was difficult. But knowing that I’m going to be in the draw, of course if I’m healthy and ready to compete, but I have to work for those opportunities. I realise that. I realise that I start from the very bottom. I’m okay with it.”
.@MariaSharapova shines in @MutuaMadridOpen first round!
Downs Buzarnescu, 6-4, 6-1! #MMOpen pic.twitter.com/4a5v4UBcOw
— WTA (@WTA) May 6, 2018
Sharapova admits her press conferences are not as packed at that first one in Stuttgart last year when she made her return to competition but says her focus on the task at hand never waned from the moment she got back to action.
Still, her day-to-day rhythm on tour must have changed as she has gone from someone who typically made it deep at tournaments and contested five to six matches in back-to-back weeks to a player who would lose an opening clash and wait another week to compete again.
“If you’re asking me if I want to be losing early in a tournament and then withdrawing from a tournament while being injured and not competing for three or four weeks, then no, that’s definitely not what I expect, and that’s definitely not what I want to be doing,” said Sharapova when asked about how she’s been handling that change of pace.
“Do I want to be ranked 60, 70 in the world? No, I don’t. Do I want to be losing first round? Absolutely not. That’s why I’m still here, is because I’m not satisfied with those things and because I keep looking and getting better and working on things, making adjustments, not being stubborn on things that I believe will make me better.
“That’s really what I can do for myself in my career, just like everybody else, no matter what their career is. Mine just happens to be in front of thousands of people. The losses are a little bit tougher, on a different level.
“But we all face the same vulnerabilities, sometimes the same success, sometimes the same losses, whether it’s personal, professional.
“No, those are situations I don’t want to be in. I don’t want to wait 10 days to play another match. I’m a competitor. I want to go out and I want to improve and get better.”
Next for Sharapova is another Romanian, Irina-Camelia Begu, who took out seventh-seeded French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the first round on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Kvitova brushed off fatigue and crushed Lesia Tsurenko 6-1, 6-2 in the Madrid first round, less than 30 hours after she had won the title in Prague.
The Czech No. 10 seed finally has a day off on Monday before taking on Monica Puig in the second round on Tuesday.
