Tennis News: Tennis player who has won five Grand Slam titles, Maria Sharapova was eliminated from the first tournament she played in the 2020 season.
Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova has to admit the competent game of US tennis player Jennifer Brady, who won 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 in the first round of the Brisbane International.
Sharapova, who won the title in Brisbane in the 2015 season, started the match quite well when he broke Brady early in the journey to the first set.
However, 24-year-old Brady dominated the second set by only losing one game and imposing the deciding set.
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After both players served well to force the match to go through the tiebreaker, Sharapova lost two points from her serve at 3/4 before Brady came out victorious.
However, Brady’s journey will not be easier after in the second round he will duel against the first seed and host favorite Ashleigh Barty who won the first Grand Slam title in his career at the French Open last season.
In another match, fifth seed Petra Kvitova fared luckier than Sharapova. Czech, Kvitova also faced a fierce fight in her first match in the 2020 season.
Facing Sharapova’s compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the two-time champion at Wimbledon, Kvitova could not do much in the first set and only won two games.
But in the last two sets, Kvitova appeared so heated and did not give much opportunity to Pavlyuchenkova to claim a 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory.
For the sake of a place in the quarterfinals, Kvitova will meet another Russian, Liudmila Samsonova who succeeded in crippling Brad’s compatriot, Sloane Stephens with 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.
Previously we know that Maria Sharapova suffered a shoulder injury and has not yet 100 percent recovered, but the former world number 1, Maria Sharapova believes that she can perform optimally when she returns to action at Brisbane International.
Sharapova was frustrated by her shoulder injury, an injury that limited her pace by only 15 matches in eight tournaments in the 2019 season.
However, Sharapova stressed that retirement was not in her mind, because she began to prepare after she received a wildcard to appear at Brisbane International next season.
Besides Sharapova, Brisbane International will be enlivened by a number of other world best players such as Ashleigh Barty, Naomi Osaka, Karolina Pliskova, and Venus Williams. However, Sharapova stated that she was ready to face any challenges.
