Maria Sharapova made a powerful start to the new tennis season yesterday, crushing Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova 6-0 6-1 at the Brisbane International yesterday.

After spending more than half her life on the professional circuit, the 27-year-old knows the follies of reading too much into her early matches but the Russian was still pleased by her performance.

“It certainly felt good to start, after not playing a match for a couple of months. Despite all the training, it’s such a different feeling to go out and play in front of a crowd,” she said.

“You always want to apply the things you work on little by little into match atmosphere. I think I did that quite well. I wanted to start off sharp.”

Looking revitalised after a break following her exit from last year’s WTA Championships in Singapore, Sharapova ticked all the boxes in her 63-minute romp.

Sharapova served well, landing 67 per cent of her first serves and saving the two break points she faced, and was ruthless against Shvedova, racing through the opening set in just 23 minutes.

Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams ensured Auckland Classic organisers’ dream final remained on track as Wozniacki beat Julia Glushko 6-3 6-3 while Williams demolised Jana Cepelova 6-1 6-0.

Nadal beaten in Qatar

Rafa Nadal’s season got off to a miserable start as his comeback from injury and illness stalled in the Qatar Open first round with a 1-6 6-3 6-4 defeat by German Michael Berrer yesterdayday.

The Spaniard looked on track for a promising win when he took the first set at the warm-up event for the Australian Open.

However, Berrer came out firing winners to all corners of the court to pull off his first win over a top five player.

Other result: Djokovic bt Lajovic 6-2 6-1.

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