Sharapova made her illustrious comeback to the tour this week after being out of tennis action for nearly half a year whichhas then seen her ranking status plummet to a lowly 126. However, one will be a fool to judge a book by its cover as the Russian beauty is better than the current standings suggests. It will be a matter of weeks before she rejoins the top 10 group. In her latest match, she dispoed her opponent by a score of 6-0 6-2 which lasted less than an hour.

On the other hand, her opponent today is the ever consistent Alona Bondarenko who has grown in stature in the last two years. Although the ukrainian girl does not look like a winner week in week out, her runs in tournaments suggests that she has the potential to push even further. Last week in Madrid, she made it all the way to the route in the QF where she lost to the might Safina.

These two girls are certainly the better bunch of players on the tour and I think Maria will continue her amazing return by knocking out yet another good seed on her path to victory. Go for the russian girl to beat the Ukrainian in an intense and tough battle.

Maria Sharapova to win 2-1 @ 3.75