Maria Sharapova last won a match at the Mallorca Open, during the grass-court season. The Russian player retired in the Wimbledon first round and now in Toronto, things did not go well for her as she lost to Anett Kontaveit in three sets.
Speaking in a press conference after her loss, the former world No. 1 said: “It was definitely longer than I had thought was the last time since I competed here. I thought it was a few years and, yeah, it’s been since 2011. Obviously, would have liked to have played a little bit more than, yeah, the end result,” said Sharapova.
“It was a physical match throughout. You know, I think she was the aggressive player, took a few more chances in the end, and I think it paid off. I put a lot of work to get to this stage, so I think to finish off this match is good.
Definitely not the result I would have liked, but overall feeling pretty good about it. I’m still building the confidence and my forms and that’s something that’s just going to come with time and with match play. Unfortunately, I just haven’t had that yet, so will just hopefully try to build on it.
You know, there’s never the perfect scenario. You know, I’m going to be coming up against tough players, long matches, and there are always going to be tested. And I always have to play my best tennis no matter who I play. So it will just take time to build that confidence again because I have struggled with it for a long time.”
