Maria Sharapova declared herself free from the worry of a forearm injury after charging into the Australian Open third round on Wednesday.
The fifth seeded Russian had to pull out of the leadup Brisbane International with a sore left forearm but was in full flight in a 6-2 6-1 rout of unseeded Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, the early match at the Rod Laver Arena.
"Yeah, I feel pretty good. I felt I was more confident with my left hand today," Sharapova, runnerup last year to Serena Williams, told reporters.
“That’s always something that -- especially when it’s like in the hand-wrist area -- it’s in the back of your mind even though you’re feeling it.
“I felt really good and confident today about it.”
Long a baseline blaster rather than an all-court player with a delicate touch, the five-times grand slam champion had enough comfort against Sasnovich to launch a few drop-shots from the baseline, with mixed results.
Sharapova said she had been working on mixing up her game, which some pundits have seen as too one-dimensional to beat top seed Williams, who has long dominated the Russian.
“When I’m aggressive and I have depth on my shots, it’s just good to have that variety to bring (players) in, to move forward myself,” said Sharapova, who next faces American Lauren Davis.
“I mean, I had a couple of good (drop-shots), I had a couple of really crappy ones. I’d say it was pretty mediocre today.
“It’s actually something that I had to add, because I was getting really frustrated losing to my hitting partner all the time.
“He just stood so far back behind the baseline, I was like, just can’t handle him beating me so often.
“I have to just change things around. That’s kind of when I started getting into that a little bit.
“He was a little surprised (laughter). But it started working, so that was good.”
The top seed
Meanwhile defending champion Serena Williams ramped up her bid for a 22nd grand slam title with a dominant 6-1 6-2 win over unseeded Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei to charge into the Australian Open third round.
The top seed had to survive a tough opening match against Italian Camila Giorgi but destroyed the 90th-ranked Hsieh in exactly one hour in glorious sunshine at Rod Laver Arena.
Hsieh, a two-time grand slam doubles champion, prised three break points but the American saved them all and closed out the match with her seventh ace.
“I think I was really focused and that first round really helped me because I was really just fighting,” world number one Williams told reporters after setting up a third-round clash against 18-year-old Russian Daria Kasatkina.
“I really gave a big effort there. Today again, I just wanted to stay focused for the whole time.
“I don’t think I made that many errors today. Something I was hopefully trying to get back into. And I moved much better today, so slowly but surely, feeling a little bit better.”
Williams pulled out of the lead-up Hopman Cup midway through her first match with knee trouble but looked untroubled as she burned around the court to fire 26 winners past the Taiwanese.
She was particularly pleased with her scramble for a winner around the net, which she thought was the first of her career, but poured cold water on the idea of pulling off a between-the-legs trick shot in subsequent matches.
“It’s always cool to do something fresh and new,” she said.
“I don’t do (‘tweeners). I’m not good at those. I did when I was younger, and I was terrible at it. I know what I’m good at, and I know things I’m not going to excel at. I’m definitely not going to excel at that shot.”
