Sharapova serves up trouble at Toronto Cup

Maria Sharapova turned a corner in her comeback by reaching the final of the Toronto Cup on Sunday only to find a long road still ahead to get back to the top.

Working her way back to form after nine months recovering from shoulder surgery, the Russian closed a constructive week in Canada with the type of ragged performance that will have reminded her of the work to be done.

A 6-4 6-3 loss to fellow Russian Elena Dementieva in Sunday's final showed the three-time grand slam winner has yet to come to grips with her surgically repaired shoulder and her once powerful serve remains a liability.

In the first set Sharapova served nine double faults while her forehand found the net more often than hit the mark.

"It's coming back from something that's a pretty serious injury with the shoulder," Sharapova told reporters.

"My serve is one of my biggest weapons and coming off the injury, tweaking your motion a little bit, it takes a lot of time for adjustments.

"You do something for your whole career, since you were young and you're use to doing it a certain way then all of sudden you have to change it at a very elite level. It takes time."

While Sharapova's serve remains a work in progress she showed the lay-off had not dulled her competitive edge.

She beat 10th seed Nadia Petrova, seventh seed Vera Zvonareva and 14th seed Agnieszka Radwanska then out-lasted Alisa Kleybanova in a three-set slugfest for a place in the final.

"I think it was a really great week for me," Sharapova said.