Sharapova: 'I thrive playing under the New York lights'

NEW YORK, NY, USA - The first time Maria Sharapova played a night session at the US Open was when the Russian was a 17-year-old sensation, fresh off her maiden Slam title at Wimbledon 2004.

It was a scrappy first-round victory, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 over American Laura Granville - but it kickstarted one of the five-time major champion's most remarkable winning streaks, an immaculate record in New York night matches that she extended to 22-0 with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of No.10 seed Jelena Ostapenko last night.

"I don't remember how old I was when I played my first night match, but I'm sure I was young enough to still be intimidated by the city and the lights and the atmosphere, the noise, as anyone that's quite young would be," the 2006 champion mused afterwards.

"But I really turned that around. I think I thrive on that. I love the atmosphere. I love that they know how to cheer hard. I thrive on playing under the lights for some reason. I love that challenge."

As for her performance against the 2017 Roland Garros champion, Sharapova was satisfied. "I felt pretty confident throughout," she said. "I hit quite well, served much better. I think putting all those things together gave me a good enough scoreline.

"Thought I just did enough to get another ball back, moved really well. In the points that I lost, maybe I just didn't take enough steps. Didn't feel that she was hurting me as much. Felt like I had a little bit more time today. Just was a little bit more alert on my feet. So I think that helped me."

The No.22 seed also discussed her ability to raise her game on pressure points, something she has had a wealth of experience in. "Sometimes they're not as obvious to someone sitting in the stands as it's obvious to you," she pointed out. "It can be in the beginning of a match, it can be in the middle of it. It might not seem like an important point to someone sitting and watching.

"I've played so many matches in my career where I know, for some reason, whether I feel the energy or the momentum swing in the last few points, maybe it's at 3-3, maybe I'm up a break, it's 30-all, those types of points where I really feel like those are important. They might not be the ones that everyone else feels are important.

"You never know when they're going to come. I mean, I feel like I've had enough experience to know how to handle them. Sometimes you don't handle them as well as you like."