Maria Sharapova fires title warning to rivals

Surgery two years ago has hampered Maria Sharapova's progress since then but there are signs the former Wimbledon champion is returning to form.

The 23-year-old is now seeded 16 having won 18 and lost five of her matches this year.

The Russian has a real chance of following up on her 2004 Ladies Singles final win over Serena Williams here when she was a callow 17-year-old.

Since then the Russian has had her detractors who feel that she is more style than substance. But there was no frivolity about her 6-1, 6-0 demolition of her Russian compatriot Anastasia Pivovarova in just 54 minutes on Court No 2 yesterday.

Asked if she feels back she can now beat anyone on her day Sharapova's reply was unequivocal: "Absolutely," she fired back.

"It was good, especially considering it was the first time I had played her. I had to figure it out as I went along. My body feels good. I'm in much better match condition than I was last year."

She is certainly enjoying her tennis now after her enforced lay-off: "My joy with my game is pretty much up there with before I got injured. Maybe even more so because it was taken away from me for such a long period of time."

Sharapova was ruthless on serve in a one-sided 30-minute opener, dropping just three points on her own delivery, and was just as effective when returning, breaking the qualifier twice.

The second was even more lop-sided as Sharapova dropped just four points on serve and broke another three times, wasting only 24 minutes to complete a straight-sets passage into the second round.

The Russian who is now based in Florida is also dating Sasha Vujacic of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, and was asked to compare the sports.

Her reply that she preferred an individual sport like tennis because she would hate to be let down by her team mates if she was playing well, raised a chuckle and showed her fires are burning bright.

Whether the former world No.1 and three-time Grand Slam champion is playing the kind of tennis good enough to cause problems for top seed Serena Williams - her projected fourth round opponent - remains to be seen, but the shoulder's fine. Maria has fired a warning to her rivals.