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Maria Sharapova laughs off suggestions US Open exit represents toughest period of her life

"I think I've done plenty in my career, established a lot for myself personally, professionally"

Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro (L) shakes hands with Russia's Maria Sharapova at the net after winning during their 2018 US Open Women's Singles tennis match at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on September 3, 2018.
Image: Maria Sharapova congratulates Carla Suarez Navarro on her surprise win

Maria Sharapova insists she still has belief after laughing off suggestions that losing in the US Open fourth round represents the toughest period of her life.

Sharapova's long-unbeaten record in night-session matches at Flushing Meadows was ended in the fourth round by Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro.

Sharapova, the champion in 2006, had won 23 straight matches under the lights, including her previous three contests this year, but Suarez Navarro, on her 30th birthday, clinched a 6-4 6-3 victory to reach her second quarter-final in New
York
.

Maria Sharapova

It was well deserved for the 30th seed, who next plays Madison Keys, as she drew the errors from the Sharapova racket - 38 unforced, including eight double faults - and used her flowing single-handed backhand to great effect.

Sharapova matched her performance from last year but then, in her first Grand Slam since the end of her doping ban, the fourth round seemed a sign she could return to her best. Twelve months on, that seems significantly less likely.

Maria Sharapova of Russia returns the ball during her women's singles fourth round match against Carla Suarez Nervarro of Spain on Day Eight of the 2018 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 3, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City

The Russian, who first arrived in the United States with her father - but without her mother - and just $700 in their pockets, said: "If I didn't have the belief to keep doing this and to keep having the motivation and the grind of doing this every day in order to get myself in these positions, I don't think I would be here. I think I've done plenty in my career, established a lot for myself personally, professionally.

"What's challenging is when you're a teenager and you have a few hundred dollars and you've got no sense of the future, you don't know where you're going to end up. You just have a dream. I think that's a lot tougher than being 31 years old and having the opportunity to do whatever I want in my life."

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