Maria Sharapova sails by Begu in Tianjin opener

Tiajin, China  : Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova got off to a flying start at the Tianjin Open yesterday, as she raced past No.9 seed Irina-Camelia Begu in her opening match, by the score of 6-4, 6-2. The former World No.1 had won both of her previous meetings with Begu in straight sets, and continued her head-to-head dominance of the Romanian in the first round in Tianjin, which finally began after rain washed out play on Tuesday.

Sharapova was thrilled to get the win after the delays. “It’s been a long wait for everyone, it hasn’t been easy,” she told the press after her win. “I had a first practice outdoors, and then I think it rained for 70 hours straight, unfortunately for the players.”

“The good thing about this tournament is it has indoors, it’s pretty state-of-the-art, and I trained at the National Tennis Centre as well, which was very impressive,” Sharapova continued. “So I was still able to maintain good practice sessions.”

Sharapova played aggressively off of her forehand side throughout the match, as is her custom, and though that shot won her numerous points with some stunning winners, a not unsubstantial amount of unforced errors came off of that wing as well.

For example, a forehand unforced error by Sharapova gave Begu the first break point of the match at 3-3, and the Romanian was handed the break via a double fault. But powerful forehands by the Russian in the next game led to a break of the Begu serve, evening the set again at 4-4.

Begu faltered in her next service game as well, losing the last four points to hand a one-set lead to the Russian, after Sharapova crushed a service return for an untouched winner on her first set point.

Sharapova finished the first set winning 83 percent of her first serve points, and it seemed that she would race through the remainder of the match once she broke for a 2-0 lead in the second set, when a crosscourt forehand was returned outside the sidelines by Begu.