Tracy Austin

MELBOURNE, Australia - What a difference a year makes.

Twelve months after a lopsided pummeling by Serena Williams in the title match Down Under -- a devastating loss that sent Maria Sharapova into a year-long tailspin -- tennis' bling girl is back on her game and looking to rise to No. 1 in the rankings.

The statuesque Russian survived a small scare in the first set, but then went on to cruise to a 7-5, 6-3 victory over fourth-seeded Ana Ivanovic to win her third major and first Australian Open.

Serving up much needed redemption
Sharapova was aggressive from the outset, and didn't lose a point on her first three service games. Apart from one sloppy service game in which she hit three double faults to let Ivanovic back in the set at 4-4, Sharapova dominated most of the crucial points against the Serbian as she had when she beat her at the year-end championships last November.

How impressive was the 20-year-old Bollettieri-trained, Siberian-born Russian? Well, the fifth-seeded Sharapova didn't drop a set in seven matches, blowing away top players such as former No. 1 Lindsay Davenport, two-time Grand Slam finalist Elena Dementieva, fourth-ranked Jelena Jankovic, and top-ranked Justine Henin. The 6-1, 6-2 demolition at the hands of Williams was completely eradicated.

“It's incredible. If somebody would've told me during the middle of last year I'd be here I'd have said, 'Forget it,'” Sharapova said on court after the 91-minute match on Rod Laver Arena. She most had her superior serve to thank for her redemption. It was something else. It was extremely powerful and extremely well directed. The Russian dominated on her own delivery and delivered herself a great start to a new year.

Now healthy and really tough to handle
It's a scary thought that Sharapova took the title match even though she didn't play her sharpest of the fortnight against Ivanovic, who will rise to No. 2 when the new rankings come out. Sharapova will remain at No. 5, though the rankings clearly don't reflect the true pecking order after such a dominant fortnight by the Russian. Sharapova should be thrilled with her start to 2008. She came to Melbourne not sure if there would be any hangover from a season that didn't reflect her talent and sent a direct hit to her confidence.

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She navigated a very tough draw and to my mind this was her most complete tournament from start to finish. I saw improvements on her already formidable game, especially in her movement and defense. Now that her shoulder is healed, the serve is back and she's always been nails from the baseline. This was the clinical and steely-eyed player we expected to see last year after the second half of 2006 when Sharapova won the U.S. Open and lost just once the rest of the season.

This was the Sharapova who held so much promise when she burst on the tennis scene by winning Wimbledon as a 17-year-old. The six-foot-two Russian sent a message over the last two weeks and the rest of the tour's top players heard it loud and clear. This year she has her sights set on her best season yet. And it's up to the other elite women to try and keep that from happening.

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