Maria Sharapova is enjoying at Wimbledon

There was a time, not all that long ago, when Maria Sharapova wondered when she would be back at Grand Slam tournaments, let alone winning matches.

Surgery in October on her right shoulder a fairly important part of a tennis player's body forced Sharapova off the tour for the better part of a year. She returned to singles action last month, and she struggled quite a bit yesterday before reaching the second round at Wimbledon getting past qualifier Viktoriya Kutuzova of Ukraine 7-5, 6-4.

Maria Sharapova

"If someone told me four months ago that I'd be here playing Wimbledon, you know, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised, but I would be really happy about the fact," Sharapova said. "And I am happy to be here."

While some women have already played 35 or even 45 singles matches in 2009, Sharapova is 11-3, having only started her season at a clay-court event in Poland in May.

As a precautionary warmup for her shoulder and to get her serve back to normal, Sharapova has taken to throwing around an American football to loosen the joint before practice sessions. And she has adjusted her service motion, something that she acknowledges is something of a work-in-progress.

Djokovic through
Novak Djokovic, the man seeded to meet Roger Federer in the semi-finals, endured a much more testing afternoon. The Serb was forced to battle for three-and-a-half hours to complete a 6-7 (8/10), 7-6 (7/1), 6-2, 6-4 win over France's Julien Benneteau.