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Maria Sharapova admits that she is gambling with her hopes of a second Wimbledon title by opting to test her suspect ankle on the gruelling clay courts of Roland Garros at the French Open.
The decision almost backfired spectacularly when she saved three match points to beat America's Mashona Washington in Sunday's first round here and the 19-year-old fourth seed agreed that she's at the centre of a high-stakes game.
"It's a difficult decision," said the Russian pin-up.
"It's like a poker game. I don't know what cards are going to show up."
Sharapova, the Wimbledon champion in 2004, came into Roland Garros having not played a clay court match all season after an eight-week spell on the sidelines nursing a painful and swollen right ankle.
After her 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 escape against Washington, where she came back from 2-5 down in the final set, Sharapova revealed that she had undergone another MRI scan on the ankle after aggravating the problem in practice on Thursday.
"It was a tough decision to play because Wimbledon is more important than this tournement. But who knows how much better it's going to be in a week. Inflammation goes away by itself.
"If you rest it for a week, it's not going to go away. There's a lot of fluid in there."
Sharapova, who has never got beyond the quarter-finals at the French Open, is adamant that the decision by the organisers to kick-off the tournament on a Sunday, rather than the traditional Monday, almost cost her heavily.
After her MRI scan, she had requested that she not be given a Sunday start.
But with her status as the biggest drawcard in the women's game, she was always destined to be a headline act in an effort to bring in the crowds.
The combination of a holiday weekend and cool temperatures meant that neither of the three main stadiums here were full on Sunday.
"I didn't play today to sell tickets or make the French federation happy. I'm here to win the trophy and I'm going to do everything I can that's possible to win," said Sharapova whose request for a later start as met with a firm refusal.
"They said: 'You're playing fourth match on Sunday'. It doesn't make you feel great when all French federation is thinking about is selling tickets, making money and about their players.
"But if I feel that my ankle is not too great and I have to stop, then I have to stop. I'm 19 years old. I'm going to play these Slams for many more years."
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AFP 290927 GMT 05 06
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