Rome glory for Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova warmed up for the defence of her French Open crown in the best way possible by claiming the Italian Open title for the third time in Rome.

Sharapova won a hard-fought final against Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro, losing the first set and winning a very tight second, before romping through the decider to triumph 4-6 7-5 6-1.

Sharapova felt she made too many errors in the opening set and at the beginning of the second, but said: "I thought the errors I was making were really close. I felt like I was doing the right thing and I'm glad I gave myself a chance to cut those down."

"She's a really all-around player who can step in and can step back but she was really far behind the baseline and I feel like I took advantage of that. I felt that I was the fresher one, felt like I was more aggressive."

“To see where I was physically in the third set today was huge against someone who can withstand a very long match. That gave me a lot of confidence. I've come a long way physically in the last few weeks but it's taken a lot of mental and physical work to get to this stage.”

Suarez Navarro said: “It was a really close match. I knew I needed to start really strongly and I did but, at the end of the second set, Maria began to play more aggressively. I think that was the key but, overall, I am happy with my performance."

...SkySports