After having withdrawn from Brisbane due to a forearm injury, Maria Sharapova feels ready to play Australian Open, a tournament that saw her triumphing in 2008. ‘I feel really good. I arrived in Melbourne earlier than I wanted to.
But it gave me a chance to practice here this week. Had great days on a lot of the courts’. The Russian finished her 2015 season in the middle of November when she lost the Fed Cup final against Czech Republic. ‘I had a really good off-season, even though it was short and quick.
I was able to train. It was much more straightforward and productive, nothing overly complicated as it was probably only three weeks long because of Fed Cup.’ In the first two weeks of the new season all the top players withdrew the ongoing tournaments.
According to Sharapova, things change very quickly, just before the tournament: ‘Yeah, it’s tricky. Three days before the tournament, you feel healthy. Then something happens. All of a sudden you can’t really compete in the tournament.
Things change very fast. That’s when you have to have the right mindset and an even better outlook.’ – said Sharapova, who’s lost three finals in Melbourne, in 2007 and 2015 against Serena Williams, and in 2012 against Victoria Azarenka.
Sharapova also talked about her schedule fter this tournament, including her plans about the Fed Cup match to be held in St. Petersburg, ‘Really my schedule is up in the air. I think I’ll really want to take care of my form a little bit more and give myself a little bit more rest because that’s something that reoccurred, something that I had back in Wuhan.
As a tennis player, you really don’t have much time, what I believe, healing properly. That will be really important no matter how good or bad I feel after the tournament. I don’t know what my schedule is. I know I’m committed to, I think Doha, maybe Dubai.