Sharapova vanquished by Vekic in Australian Open first round
ByReuters
Published 21/01/2020 at 03:43 GMT
MELBOURNE, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Former champion Maria Sharapova put up a mid-match fight before bowing out of the Australian Open at the first hurdle on Tuesday, beaten 6-3 6-4 by Croatian Donna Vekic on Rod Laver Arena.
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The 32-year-old Russian was clearly still hampered by the shoulder injury that had restricted her to one previous competitive outing since her opening-round exit at last year's U.S. Open.
Vekic proved a formidable opponent on the court where Sharapova won the title in 2008 and the 19th seed raced to a 5-1 lead in the opening set before the former world number one found a way to get back into the contest.
Sharapova made Vekic work hard to close out the set and took a 4-1 lead in the second but was unable to maintain her momentum, losing the last five games to make her earliest exit from Melbourne Park since 2010. (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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