Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart

[36] Roberta Vinci (ITA) vs. [PR] Maria Sharapova (RUS)

No matter how confident you are and no matter your stature, it is a bit uncomfortable to return after being out on a drug suspension.  Perhaps it would not have been such a big deal if is she had not garnered so much attention in the press.  If it had been down played like the incidents of the other tennis players that had been suspended for the use of banned substances, no one would really care; however, it was Maria Sharapova, the golden child of tennis and it was big news.

We know that Sharapova is very single-minded once she steps on the court.  If any player can return after so much negative publicity without a blemish, she can.  There is something about her personality that allows her to shrug off the stigma and get back to her passion, competing.  She has never lost to Roberta Vinci in their two meetings and based on the score there was not much resistance from Vinci, she only won 4 games. Yet, they have not played since 2012 and Vinci may have had a point to prove.  While there was a little rust, it was not enough to hamper her game for too long; once she got rid of the initial rust in the first set, the second set was the same old Sharapova and she won 7-5, 6-3.

SOURCE OF IMAGE:  Bing search