Maria Sharapova Beats the Heat, Svetlana Kuznetsova in Cincinnati

CINCINNATI--She makes an awful lot of money for being pretty.  But in the last few years, Maria Sharapova has earned a living by winning ugly. 

In a performance that wasn't without blemishes, #9 seed Sharapova toughed out a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 victory over unseeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, a rare first round match between multiple grand slam winners.

Sharapova's serve has been her Achilles' heel over the last eighteen months or so, but it held up fairly well tonight.  Despite eleven double faults, Sharapova was not broken in either the first or third set.

"I'm actually serving a lot better than I did last summer," Sharapova said. 

"I'm hitting bigger serves.  Maybe I'm missing a few more first serves and second serves, but I'm not hitting second serves 70 miles an hour."

Sharapova was aggressive not only on her serve, but also on the ground, hitting far more winners (and errors) than Kuznetsova, who was forced into a defensive position throughout most of the match.

"I'm gonna win tournaments by going for my shots, Sharapova said. "Whether it's off the groundstrokes and playing my game, or off the serve.  Rather than waiting for my opponents to miss and maybe not making as many unforced errors.  That's not my game."

The steamy air in the Cincinnati suburbs made this the rare night match in which the heat rule was in effect.  Perhaps due to her greater fatigue from the quick turn around from Sunday's final in San Diego, Kuznetsova seemed to be much more affected by the heat.  The fatigue also manifested itself in soreness in Kuznetsova's left leg, which she said was simply "normal."

Sharapova finds herself in a very tough section of the draw here at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open.  She next faces Andrea Petkovic, and then the winner of #7 Agnieszka Radwanska and Alisa Kleybanova in the third round. 

Sharapova showed tonight she has the grit to make it through the heat, but she is going to have to keep playing with the fire she had tonight if she is going to make a deep run in her first trip to Cincinnati.