Maria Sharapova continued her warm up for Wimbledon and her improvement of fitness by taking just 70 minutes to beat Stephanie Dubois at the AEGON classic in Birmingham.

It was a truly efficient display for a lady who showed superb concentration and efficiency to pick off and destroy a player who was clearly inferior to the task at hand. The manner of the performance is likely to send a message to all those that held doubts over Sharapova’s fitness ahead of the biggest Grand Slam in tennis.

The Russian has been missing from the women’s circuit for the majority of the last year and as a result has seen her world-ranking slide to 73. The 6-4, 6-2 victory shows she is getting back to her best and there will be little doubt in many minds that she will fly back up the rankings in the coming months.

Competition in the women’s game is getting more difficult all the time and it seems that she has arrived back on the scene at pretty much the perfect time to stamp down some authority and get her name back into the ring.

Sharapova said: “I don’t have any expectations. These tournaments are a good test mentally and physically and the match was a great workout. I’m not going to be drawn into any drama.”

Sharapova’s story is a very interesting one. She has won major honours in tennis but does not seem to have been able to nail down the consistency that can turn her into the greatest female player of all time. She definetely has the ability but the psycological effect of being out with injury for so long could work the other way and have an influence over her confidence.

Not too much should be read into this performance. She herself batted back the significance of the modest victory. It is more a case of everyone should be happy that a talented player is back and playing after an injury that could have all but ended her career.

Looking as elegant as ever Sharapova showed yesterday why she would be a very good bet for Wimbledon this year. When a professional in any sport is out of action for so long it creates a subconcious determination that when you are back playing, you will fight twice as hard as you did before.

She seems genuinely grateful just to be fit again and many people may wel, feel that she is a good outside bet to win Wimbledon. However, a lot of female players have stablished themselves since Sharapova has been out with injury and the competition is better thasn it has ever been in the fame half of the tournament.

Pinning too much expectation on her would be a very naïve thing to do. It should be more a case of people being happy that they get to watch a talented player pick up the racket again and she is sure to get a very good recpetion when she steps out for her first match on the coveted grass.

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