Russia’s Maria Sharapova insisted the best was still ahead of her despite a devastating Australian Open loss to exciting young Belarusian Victoria Azarenka on Saturday. The three-time grand slam winner went into the final full of confidence against Azarenka, who was playing her first major title match, but her game went to pieces for a 6-3, 6-0 loss in just 82 minutes. Despite being only two years older than Azarenka at 24, Sharapova has far more experience than Azarenka and has been playing on the big stages since her teens and won Wimbledon in 2004 as a 17-year-old. But with some of the greatest names in the sport watching on, including Rod Laver and Margaret Court, it was Azarenka who played like the veteran and Sharapova the nervous debutante. “She did everything better than I did today. I had a good first couple of games, and that was about it,” Sharapova said bluntly.
