BRISBANE, Australia -- After pulling out of the Brisbane International with injuries in recent seasons, Maria Sharapova is aiming to use the season-opening
tournament this time as a springboard for her comeback and to see how her new
support crew works in competition.
Cheap Blank Jerseys . Sharapova has only played one match since an early exit at Wimbledon due to a right shoulder injury and has spent months working with
her new coach Sven Groeneveld. She arrived in Australia to prepare for the first
major of the season with her boyfriend and fellow professional Grigor Dimitrov,
who returns after losing the final here to Andy Murray last season. Serena
Williams won the last Brisbane title and is back to defend it, hoping she hasnt
lost any of the momentum from a stunning 2013 season when she won 11 titles
including the French and U.S. Opens, had 78 wins from 82 matches -- including a
34-match winning streak -- and collected more than $12 million in prize money.
Her brief off-season was not exactly business as usual -- although it was
commercial. She trained in Florida with her father, Richard, so she could be
close to home for the relaunch of one of her companies and to hire a CEO for it.
"I was interviewing so many people. Corporate Serena was taking over," she told
a news conference Sunday. "Im happy to be here right now." Corporate Serena
conducted at least 10 interviews, and still has at least one more to do. She
expects it to be a tough interview, like they all are. "I definitely am not easy
... Im a tough interviewer. For me, its all about business and removing a lot of
emotion," she said. "I just want to get to the point." And that brings her back
to tennis, where she can turn the corporate email account off for a while and
concentrate on what she does best. "I took a couple weeks off, but I was already
itching to get back on the court," she said. "I didnt want to lose any rhythm or
anything. Didnt want to lose momentum." No. 3-seeded Sharapova is in Williams
half of the draw, meaning they could meet in the semifinals. The Brisbane
tournament will be Sharapovas only warmup for the Australian Open, which starts
Jan. 13, so she needs to find her rhythm quickly. She said shed been practicing
hard, but also concentrating on relaxing when shes off the court. Traveling with
Dimitrov has helped, she said, despite or because of their major common
interest. "Of course we share a lot of the same things just because we have an
elephant in the room thats called tennis," Sharapova said Sunday. "But there are
so many other things to life that are besides tennis, and there are a lot more
things to discuss than forehands and backhands and strings and rackets, which we
share similar ideas and things of." Sharapova split with coach Thomas Hogstedt
after her Wimbledon loss, and said she wasnt in the right frame of mind to work
with Jimmy Connors long term -- that partnership lasted one match. "You have to
realize that the decisions you make, you have to make them selfishly in this
business to be better, to know whats right for you," she said. "From the first
time we met I really liked what (Groeneveld) had to say. Hes a team player. He
works with everyone on my team, something I was missing for a little bit of
time." In first-round results at Brisbane: Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki had
a 6-3, 6-4 win over Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia; Andrea Petkovic of Germany
beat American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 7-5; Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm
won 6-3, 7-5 over Australias Olivia Rogowska; and Swiss player Stefanie Vogele
beat American Madison Keys 6-4, 6-3. Former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki
withdrew after hurting her right shoulder in practice but said she expected to
be fit the Sydney International next week. While Serena Williams gets a
first-round bye in Brisbane, her older sister Venus Williams will be in action
from the first round at the WTA event in Auckland on Monday when she plays
134-ranked Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic. In Hopman Cup Group B action
at Perth, Petra Kvitova and Radek Stepanek combined to give the Czech Republic a
3-0 win over Spain. Kvitova only lost one game en route to a comprehensive
singles win over Anabel Medina Garrigues before Stepanek beat Daniel Munoz-De La
Nava 6-2, 6-2. The Czech pair won the mixed doubles 6-3, 6-4.
Wholesale Jerseys . - Brent Burns kept waiting to see a replay of his shot that struck Martin Brodeur in the back of the neck and left the New Jersey
Devils goalie flat on his back on the ice.
Wholesale NFL Jerseys . The veteran cornerback agreed to a two-year contract with the Saints on Friday, with a maximum value that approaches $7 million, including
guaranteed money and a signing bonus in the first year. MONACO -- The rivalry
between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton for the Formula One title is turning
into a full-blown scrap -- both on and off the track. Rosberg won the Monaco
Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to take the championship lead back from
Hamilton, who won the previous four races but was left infuriated by Rosbergs
sudden and late accident the day before in qualifying. The win was a fifth
straight 1-2 finish for Mercedes, which has swept all six races this season, but
thats the only type of harmony in the team. Tension is building, with Hamilton
appearing unhappy before, during and after the race. "Its a fierce battle
between me and Nico and will continue that way," he said. "Im going to keep my
head up and keep pushing." Rosberg drew his teammates ire in qualifying when his
late error led to a yellow flag and ended Hamiltons chances of beating his time
with a final flying lap. Rosberg denied that he caused the incident
intentionally and he was cleared of any wrongdoing by race stewards. He went on
to clinch his second victory of the season and fifth of his career, repeating
his maiden GP win from pole here in Monaco last year. He leads Hamilton by four
points in the drivers standings, 122-118. Ferraris Fernando Alonso, who was
fourth, is already 57 points behind Hamilton. "Its a special win, definitely,
because Lewis has had the momentum with results," Rosberg said. He finished 9.2
seconds ahead of Hamilton, who was 0.4 faster than Daniel Ricciardos Red Bull.
Four-time defending champion Sebastian Vettels frustrating season with Red Bull
continued as he abandoned the race on lap eight with a power unit failure.
Hamilton and Rosberg raced each other in their junior karting days, but they did
not appear to shake hands after the race, and Hamilton looked visibly tense in
the post-match race conference as he sat next to Rosberg. He revealed that he
and Rosberg had not even been in the post-qualifying debriefing together on
Saturday. "Nico did his big debrief before I got there, which is not what we
normally do," Hamilton said. "Fortunately the engineers wrote down what Nico
said." Even at the drivers prre-race parade they were at opposite ends of the
circuit, and now they have six months left together until the end of the season,
starting with the Canadian GP in two weeks time.
Wholesale Blank Jerseys China. Hamilton said after the race that he "drove fairly all weekend," which sounded like a veiled swipe at Rosberg. During the
race, a tense Hamilton snapped back at his team when told that Ricciardo was
closing on him. "I dont care about Ricciardo, whats the gap to Nico?" Hamilton
said. Hamilton would certainly have attacked more on another track. But
overtaking on Monacos tight and narrow 78-lap circuit -- which has the slowest
average speed -- is so tough that 10 of the past 11 winners came from pole. The
exception was Hamilton in 2008, the year he won the title. Hamilton had sparked
the escalation in the rivalry with Rosberg when he questioned his teammates
hunger on Thursday as he compared their different childhoods. Rosberg is the son
of former F1 driver Keke Rosberg. "I come from a not-great place in Stevenage
and lived on a couch in my dads apartment, and Nico grew up in Monaco with jets
and hotels and boats," Hamilton said on Thursday. "If I were to come here
believing that Nico is hungrier than me then I might as well go home." Later,
Hamilton explained what hed meant. "I said what gives me the hunger is where I
grew up, in comparison to where Nico grew up," he said. "I was striving to come
to live (in Monaco). I used to travel around with Nico on his dads plane, I used
to go on his boat, (in) his house. That gave me the desire to want that." The
race itself was also eventful as eight drivers failed to finish. The safety car
came out on lap one after Sergio Perez was bumped off the track by his former
teammate Jenson Buttons McLaren at the Mirabeau turn. The safety car came out
again on lap 26 when German driver Adrian Sutils Sauber went into the barriers
on the run down to the chicane. Mercedes took the opportunity to pit both their
cars, and Hamilton seemed unhappy with the timing. "We should have pitted on
that lap (before)," he said. "But I knew you wouldnt call me in, guys."
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