MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova has entered the second round of the Australian Open beating Germany’s Tatiana Maria with a score of 6: 1, 6: 4 in the opening match. The game lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes.

In the second round, Sharapova will play with the winner of the match between Varvara Lepchenko of the United States and Anastasia Sevastova from Latvia.

Sharapova won the tournament in 2008. In 2016, she was tested positive for meldonium, a substance that had been banned, effective January 1, 2016 by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Sharapova was provisionally suspended from competitive tennis with effect from March 12, 2016. Her ban later was reduced from 24 months (2 years) to 15 months, starting from January 26, 2016, the date of the drug test she had failed. In 2017, she only managed to take part only in the US Open.

The Australian Open (the first in the season of the Grand Slam tournament) last until January 28. Total prize fund is $43 million.