Sharapova heeds advice

General / Editor / 01 February 2007 / Leave a Comment

Maria Sharapova needed some words of advice from her coach before seeing off Francesca Schiavone in her opening match at the Pan Pacific Open.

On-court coaching is allowed at the Tokyo event and the Russian star was thankful to coach Michael Joyce, after being forced into a deciding set by the Italian.

The 19-year-old showed no ill-effects from her Australian Open final mauling by Serena Williams, claiming the first set in the Far East but then lost her way in the second.

Joyce then advised her: "It all goes back to your serve. You've just got to get it together and find a way to win."

The words of wisdom clearly paid dividends as the US Open champion bounced back to claim the decider for a 7-5 2-6 6-1 success.

Sharapova will now play Ai Sugiyama (34 to take the title), who beat Maria Kirilenko 3-6 6-1 6-3.

Sharapova is the 1.81 favourite to lift the trophy in Japan with Martina Hingis, who faces Australian Samantha Stosur in the last eight, trading at 4.7.

Defending champion Elena Dementieva (5.8) beat fellow Elena Likhovtseva Russian 6-3 7-5, and will now play Jelena Jankovic (5.2), who thrashed Jie Zheng 6-4 6-0