Melbourne: Top seed MariaSharapova came spectacularly close to disaster in the first round of theAustralian Open Tuesday, only narrowly getting past injury, heat and red-hotopponent Camille Pin of France. 

The 25-year-old French underdog rallied from 0-5 in thefinal set before an injured Sharapova scrapped out a 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 win in twohours, 51 minutes.

"In the middle of the second set, I got a pinch in mystomach and it increased as the match went on. I'm not sure if it was cramps orwhat, I didn't know if it was serious."

The Russian was treated while leading 6-5 in the third set.Pin's nerves eventually got the better of her as a quiet Sharapova -hertrademark screams silent - finally got the win on her fourth match point.