Aus Open: Sharapova feared her career was over after injuries

The 24-year-old Russian won the Australian Open in 2008,the last of her three grand slam titles,before the operation kept her off court for nine months. “It means so much to be back in a grand slam final,a stage I have been to before a few years ago here,” Sharapova said.

And Sharapova,who could also return to world number one if she lifts the trophy on Saturday,said there were times when she thought she may not be able to make it back to the top of the sport. “As positive as I always try to be,you always question what you’re doing,obviously,because sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t,” she said.

“And especially just with the shoulder I think it was — I knew some examples of some people that did not quite recover from surgery and that was a little frightening,but I really had no option. So it was either give it a go or not do anything about it. Of course it took a long time and it was a process,but it was just something that was in my steps that I had to go through. And I did.”

Paes reaches final

Leander Paes had a great day at the Australian Open,reaching the final of the men’s doubles with Radek Stepanek and making it to the mixed doubles semifinals with Elena Vesnina.

The unseeded Indo-Czech pair of Paes and Stepanek defeated second seeds Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Canadian Daniel Nestor 2-6 6-4 6-4 while in the mixed doubles category,Paes and Vesnina completely outplayed fourth seeded Rohan Bopanna of India and USA’s Lisa Raymond 6-2,6-2.