The off-season for you, what's important about it when you have a tournament first up?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Uhm, most importantly it's about, you know, in the beginning of it, figuring out where you feel you need to work on, you know, what's most important to you. I mean, when you say "off-season," it's only about four to five, six weeks max of good training, depending on how good you do at the end of the year. So it depends on how long you take off.

You know, you really just try to focus on the things you want to work on, you know, put that effort into those weeks because hopefully that will be, you know, your training setup for about six months.

Just talk about the last six games because it seemed like everything just fell part.

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Yeah, although I won many games in a row after losing the first and being down 1-0, you know, you'd think I'd have the momentum in the third set with a break. But I just didn't really feel that way inside of me for some reason today. You know, just going to have those kind of days where you're always trying to come through and always trying to find a way even though you don't feel like things are exactly going your way. You know, that's just what happens.

Did you ever get to the bottom of why they posted a 129 mile an hour serve?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
No. It was definitely a mistake, because, one, I've never hit a 129 in my life, let alone a second serve, and, two, it definitely didn't feel like a 129. So definitely wishful thinking.

Seemed to serve very well. Has that been feeling a lot better?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Yeah, apart from being a little nervous in the end, I thought I did a good job of doing the right things, not just on the serve but in my game as well.
Coming in after being the defending champion, stepping out on to the court, it's not exactly the easiest situation. I thought I handled it pretty well.

Can you update us on the shoulder, how much more efficient you'll become if you have it with your new service motion?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Yeah, I mean, I got to realize it takes time. Changes, it takes time. But most importantly, I'm feeling really good. I'm happy to be back. I had a good week of training after L.A., practiced for five days, came out here, have had some really good practice sessions.
All in all, it's been good.