Maria Sharapova was made to work hard for victory in her first match of the Hong Kong Tennis Classic.

Sharapova is warming up for the Australian Open with the high profile exhibition event in the Far East.

She survived a close scrap with China’s Zheng Jie 6-7, 6-4, 6-2. The tenacious Zheng did well to edge a competitive opening set but fell away once Sharapova broke for a 3-2 lead in set two.

Sharapova felt she did not have the right strategy in the early stages saying afterwards, "I wasn't as aggressive in the beginning, I thought she controlled most of the points. I was letting her play her game too much and I thought I finally stepped in and started moving forward a little better as the match moved on and I started to put some pressure on her."

Apart from that Sharapova was very happy with the workout, two and a half hours in the heat being good practise for the conditions in Melbourne.

"It was great to have a three-set match,” she said. “I will take whatever comes my way; if that means losing the first set and battling back to find a way to win, then that is what I am going to do, although the goal wasn't to need to win in three sets."

Sharapova is currently 10/1 with Stan James to regain the Australian Open title she won in 2008