STANFORD, California: Maria Sharapova shook off the rust to beat Japan’s Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 in the first round of the Stanford Classic on Monday.

Fellow Russian Elena Dementieva joined her in the second round after beating Britain’s Anne Keothavong 6-1, 6-4.

On the comeback trail after shoulder surgery last year, three-times grand slam champion Sharapova conceded she needed more matches to get her form back.

“I had so many chances to close out the match and I didn’t,” the 62nd ranked Sharapova said. “I couldn’t raise my level when had to. But in the third set I didn’t do anything wrong, I was steady and kept doing the right things.”

After winning the first set, Sharapova squandered a 5-2 lead in the second and was unable to cash in on two match points leading 6-4 in the tiebreaker, double faulting and committing a backhand error.

The Japanese player moved ahead with a scalding backhand winner and then took the tiebreaker 8-6 after Sharapova dumped a backhand into the net.

However, the former world No. 1 turned it around in the third set with huge groundstrokes and aggressive returns to put the game away against her 34-year-old opponent. Dementieva said she was still adjusting to jetlag, but was pleased with her play. The world No. 4 is setting her sights on a US Open title run.

“I hope it’s going to be a long summer,” Dementieva said. “I need to play some good matches to get my confidence for New York.” Seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland also moved ahead with a 6-0, 6-1 demolition of Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.

Top seed Serena Williams will take the court on Tuesday against China’s Li Na while her sister Venus faces Canadian wildcard Stephanie Dubois.

Levine advances to second

round at Los Angeles

In Los Angeles, Jesse Levine beat fellow American Bobby Reynolds 6-2, 6-3 on Monday in the opening round of the Los Angeles Tennis Open.

Levine won for the sixth time in nine matches, and will face top-seeded Tommy Haas in the second round on Wednesday. “I felt I played well,” Levine said. “My first-serve percentage was pretty high and I was hitting the ball really good.”

In other first round matches, Australian Chris Guccione beat Kevin Kim of the United States, 6-1, 6-4, and Robert Kendrick overwhelmed fellow American Vince Spadea, 6-0, 6-0.

If he advances further, Levine could have a rematch with Marat Safin for the first time since beating him in the opening round at Wimbledon.

Levine said he ran into Safin on Sunday and often-mercurial Russian “just said hi. I was a little nervous about because he’s three times as big as me, but he just said hi.”

Safin, the No. 8 seed in this 28-player field that is void of any top 20 players, beat Pete Sampras later Monday night in an exhibition rematch of their 2000 US Open final, which Safin won.

Safin won the exhibition 10-6 in a tiebreaker after they had split two sets. The Russian had said he wanted the match to be “all about fun. It’s not about to show to each other who is the best one and whatever.

I know he was much better player than me.” Sampras, who won this tournament twice, said he’d like to play an exhibition or a Seniors Tour match every three or four months, but he hoped it wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that “I’m not quite as good as I used to be.” The crowd didn’t seem to mind at all, cheering and groaning at all the appropriate moments during the fast-paced match.

Levine, a left-hander who likes playing on grass, came out of qualifying to beat Safin in four sets and went on to lose in the round of 32 at Wimbledon and said he “took some confidence” from that event. He followed that by reaching the quarterfinals on grass at Newport, R.I., and lost in the second round after qualifying at Indianapolis.