This time, Maria Sharapova did not shed any tears or fall to her hands and knees as if she had won a championship. She merely smiled, waved and advanced.
Sharapova, who made an emotional return to Grand Slam tennis on Monday with a striking display of high-caliber play in a first-round victory over second-seeded Simona Halep, settled into a modicum of normalcy in the second round of the United States Open on Wednesday.
She defeated Timea Babos of Hungary, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-1, at Arthur Ashe Stadium in a match she described as “scrappy” during an interview on the court afterward.