NEW YORK — No one, not even Maria Sharapova herself, knew quite what to expect from her return to Grand Slam tennis at the U.S. Open.
It had been 19 months since she had entered a major tournament. She played only nine times anywhere since returning from a 15-month doping suspension in April. Two three-set tussles into her stay at Flushing Meadows, it’s clear that Sharapova’s game might be patchy, but she is as capable as ever of coming up with big strokes in big moments — and maybe, just maybe, could stick around for a while in a depleted draw.
Sharapova became the first woman into the third round at the U.S. Open by using 12 aces to help set aside a poor start and coming back to beat Timea Babos of Hungary 6-7
(4), 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday in Arthur Ashe Stadium. It was the highlight of a busy day that featured 87 singles matches on the schedule after rain washed out most play a day earlier.
“It wasn’t my best tennis,” Sharapova acknowledged in an on-court interview.
“It felt like it was a scrappy match.”
It was scrappy, particularly in the early going. Sharapova made a whopping 19 unforced errors in the first set alone, including a pair of missed forehands that handed over the opening set to the 59th-ranked Babos.
But as the match went on, Sharapova looked more and more like someone who used to be ranked No. 1 and owns five major titles — including the 2006 U.S. Open — than someone who needed a wild-card invitation from the U.S. Tennis Association because she is now 146th, on account of her ban and lack of play.
“In the second set, I just felt like I was physically fresh and that gave me a lot of confidence,” said the 30-year-old Russian, who wore a strip of black tape on the left forearm that bothered her earlier in the month. “I just wanted to be fittest player out there in the end, and I really felt like I was.”
She cut down her miscues to 12 unforced errors in the second set, then just five in the third, and finished with a 39-13 advantage in winners, looking as strong as she did while eliminating No. 2 seed Simona Halep in a three-set thriller in Ashe on Monday.
“It was definitely tough to control the emotions yesterday, because as much as you want to be happy about that match and what I accomplished there, you want to move on really fast,” Sharapova said.
“And so finding that balance is really hard. Today I felt like going into the match I just wanted to get it done. And I did.”
At a glance
A quick look at the U.S. Open:
LOOKAHEAD TO TODAY
No surprise here: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are both going to be back in Arthur Ashe Stadium for their second-round matches, just as they were for their openers. Federer, owner of 19 Grand Slam titles, is on the afternoon schedule, taking on Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, one match after needing five sets to edge 19-year-old American Frances Tiafoe. Nadal, who has won 15 major trophies, faces Daniel Taro of Japan at night. Federer and Nadal could wind up facing each other in the semifinals next week. Two American men get opportunities to make a statement by knocking off past Grand Slam semifinalist: Taylor Fritz plays No. 6 Dominic Thiem of Australia, who has reached the final four at the French Open twice; Donald Young goes up against No. 18 Gael Monfils, the only 2016 U.S. Open semifinalist in this year’s field at Flushing Meadows. In the women’s draw, Nicole Gibbs of the U.S. takes on No. 1-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, the runner-up in New York a year ago.
WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS
Seeded winners in the men’s first round: No. 7 Grigor Dimitrov, No. 9 David Goffin, No. 11 Roberto Bautista-Agut, No. 15 Tomas Berdych, No. 18 Gael Monfils, No. 24 Juan Martin del Potro, No. 30 Adrian Mannarino, No. 31 Feliciano Lopez.
Seeded winners in the men’s second round: No. 10 John Isner, No. 16 Lucas Pouille, No. 17 Sam Querrey.
Seeded winners in the women’s first round: No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 10 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 17 Elena Vesnina, No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe, No. 25 Daria Gavrilova, No. 27 Zhang Shuai. Seeded winners in the women’s second round: No. 13 Petra Kvitova.
WEDNESDAY’S LOSERS
Seeded losers in the men’s first round: No. 14 Nick Kyrgios, No. 22 Fabio Fognini, No. 27 Pablo Cuevas.
Seeded losers in the men’s second round: No. 19 Gilles Muller.
Seeded losers in the women’s first round: No. 19 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, No. 26 Anett Kontaveit.
STAT OF THE DAY
12 — Aces hit by Maria Sharapova in her 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-1 victory over Timea Babos to reach the third round.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I keep letting people down.” — Nick Kyrgios, after losing 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 to 235th-ranked John Millman.