Women's No.4 seed Maria Sharapova is hopeful a lighter preparation heading into the Australian Open can help her break a four-year Grand Slam title drought.
A left ankle injury ended Sharapova's 2011 season and forced her to re-assess her usual preparation for the year's first Grand Slam, as she withdrew from the Brisbane International.
That meant Tuesday's 6-0 6-1 win over Argentina's Gisela Dulko was her first tour match since she lost to Li Na in the WTA Tour Championships in Istanbul in October.
The lack of match practice clearly didn't concern the 24-year-old, who said she would rather be physically fit than match fit coming into a major tournament.
"I think in the past I could have gone into Brisbane, maybe another event, and said I might not be a hundred percent tennis-ready, but I want to come into the Grand Slam with a few matches," she said.
"That's not really the way my mentality is. I'd rather come in feeling good physically than feeling like I played a lot of matches. It's more important to me than anything. I've been on the tour for many years, played enough tournaments, I just want to be as ready as I can for the big ones."
She said the long break between matches had fuelled her desire for the game and her competitive spirit ahead of a return to the tournament she won in 2008.
"I couldn't wait to start. It feels like forever since I've been playing a match where I feel pretty good physically. It's just nice to go into a match you know that you're going to compete again at such a high level in front of so many people, especially a place where I've won before," she said.
"I've had enough training. After the off-season, you're ready to play, ready to go out and play matches."
Her next encounter is against American qualifier Jamie Hampton, who secured her first victory in a Grand Slam event with similar ease to Sharapova's win over Dulko, beating Luxembourg's Mandy Minella 6-1 6-1.
Sharapova admitted she knew little about Hampton ahead of their match and her coach Thomas Hogstedt would be working hard over the next two days to do some background on the 22-year-old.