Russian tennis star, Maria Sharapova, has proven she is still in good form at the start of the French Open, collecting an easy win against Mirjana Lucic in the first round.

΄The Croat managed to cause Maria problems only the in opener, in which she managed to win three games.

But it was all one-sided in the second set as 7th seed Sharapova needed less than an hour to wrap up a 6-3 6-0 victory.

Former World No.1, Sharapova, had problems finding her winning game after a shoulder injury, but a great display in Rome in the middle of March, showed that she`s finally back on track.

"I don`t think any road is particularly easy," she told the tournament`s official website. "If you don`t have the tough days and don`t go through adversity, I don`t think that the good ones and the wins mean as much as when everything seems to be going your way. I`ve put a lot of work in, and starting from the off-season, I had a tough period at the beginning of the year, being sick for a while and having to wait to play a tournament. But I trained really hard. I don`t think I had that work ethic last year. At some points I didn`t push myself as much as I wanted to, but that motivation has really kicked in this year, and I hope I keep going with that."

She is set to face 17-year-old Caroline Garcia of France in the second round.

Another Russian, Ekatrina Makarova, needed three sets to get the better of Italy`s Romina Oprandi, 6-4 3-6 6-0.

Over on the men`s side, Igor Kunitsyn failed to keep up with the girls` pace, managing to take just one set against Florian Mayer of Germany, 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-3.

4th seed, Andy Murray, showed no mercy to home favorite Eric Prodon. The British player needed the bare minimum of three sets to advance in the tournament, 6-4 6-1 6-3.

No. 1 seed, Rafel Nadal, had a real battle to fight against unseeded John Isner of the U.S.

The Spanish star was training 2-1 after losing two tie-break in a row, but managed to get himself together, cursing to a 6-4 6-7 6-7 6-2 6-4 victory.
sections: Sport