Maria Sharapova struggled against Evgeniya Rodina today in the 2008 French Open .  Maria Sharapova barely managed to come away with a win against Rodina 6-1, 3-6, 8-6 in the first round. The top-seeded Sharapova struggled with her serve in this round but managed to advance.

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Sharapova had 17 double-faults and landed only 64 per cent of her first serves in the match, where she is trying to complete a career Grand Slam at the clay-court major.

"I was very close to losing this match," stated Sharapova. "Not many things were working for me today after the first set."

 Losing only her first service game, Sharapova dominated the first French Open set. In one stretch, she took a 4-1 lead and won 10 of 11 points.

"I just hung in there. It was far from my best tennis today," Stated Maria. "But at the end of the day you try to learn from your mistakes."

Rodina broke Sharapova in the first game of the second set, and then held for the first time to take a 2-0 lead. Rodina held the rest of the way and broke Sharapova again in the final game of the French Open set. But the Russian Sharapova  then double-faulted three times in the following game before she held.

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