Three-set win just fine with Sharapova

If all her matches end like this, if they all go three sets with her winning two of them, then Maria Sharapova will be happy. It's not as if she expects to buzz right through the U.S. Open, something she never did even when she became the champion in 2006. Two hard won sets out of three equals victory, and that's what she got Tuesday.

Jarmila Groth was a pesky opponent, serving well to start, going for the big groundstrokes, trying to keep Sharapova on her stylish heels, and for a set it worked. But Sharapova figured out a way to win and eventually Groth fell, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. The last six points, two huge returns that broke Groth's serve, and four serving points that were vintage Sharapova power, ended an entertaining match at Arthur Ashe Stadium, past the time that the night session was supposed to start.

"I think she came out today and really swung and didn't give me much time to do anything out there," Sharapova said. "She served really well in the first set. I wasn't returning that well, giving her a lot of looks on second serve. Against a player like that, who kind of plays the 1-2 punch type of tennis, it's quite difficult to get a rhythm in the beginning."

Sharapova still is trying to regain her rhythm and her dominant swing since shoulder surgery at the end of the 2008 season. It was in 2008 she won the last of her three Grand Slam titles, at the Australian Open. Her game has been in flux since she returned in the spring of 2009. At last year's Open she was ousted by Melanie Oudin.

"You know, last year with my whole game, I was just trying to get my feet on the ground, just trying to find my position, see how I could handle playing a lot of matches under different circumstances,'' she said. "This year, a whole year with the tournaments and experience, it feels really good to be healthy coming in, just playing and not worrying about how physically you feel."

Groth felt pretty good about things herself until the third set. "Third set I really served badly," she said. "No first serve, no game."

Groth never played Sharapova while she was having shoulder problems, but she did play her last summer in Los Angeles, losing in two sets. The fact she won the first set Tuesday didn't count as a moral victory.

"You must be pleased to have gotten a set off her this time," she was asked.

"Am I really?" she replied.

Sharapova moves on to a second-round match against Iveta Benesova of Czech Republic.

"At the end of the day you just hope to give yourself another opportunity," Sharapova said.

Let's see, she's won Slams in '04, '06 and '08. Seems like 2010 fits right into the cycle.