By Kamakshi Tandon

After getting shut out of the Grand Slams in 2007 while Justine Henin and the Williams sisters swept the majors, Maria Sharapova has taken the first major of this season.                        © Romeo Gacad/Getty Images

During their best periods, all three won multiple majors in a season and piled up huge numbers of consecutive match wins – the latest being Henin’s 32-match win streak that Sharapova snapped earlier this week.

Given that each lost in the quarterfinals and Sharapova swept through, is she ready to begin targeting that level of domination as well? Sharapova demurs. “I don't think that I'm quite physically and experienced enough to do that,” she said after the final. “I don't think I'm at the peak of my career yet. I don't think my body has 100 percent developed into its own. I've got many more things to learn, you know, in my tennis, and many things to build and improve.”

She may not be ready to declare that the big three is now a foursome, but with three Slams under her belt and her 21st birthday coming up in a few months, the rest of the world will now stop seeing Sharapova as a precocious up-and-comer and regard her as a mature champion entering what should be the most successful years of her career.

Her route to this title was certainly comparable to a Henin or a Williams at their imposing best – she won seven matches without losing a set and dropped only 32 games, a run that included wins over three of the world’s top players, as well as a returning Lindsay Davenport in the second round.

The most impressive of these was a 6-4, 6-0 demolition of Henin, after which the world No. 1 could only say, “It was her day and probably her tournament as well.”

There was only one moment in the final when Henin’s prophecy looked in danger – late in the first set when Ivanovic was two points away from the set at 0-30 on Sharapova’s serve.

But in a pattern typical of the match, the Russian produced some solid first serves and was gifted with unforced errors from the fourth-seeded Ivanovic – including a dropshot that found the net at 15-30.

“I think experience definitely helped me because I didn't get impatient. I was just steady,” said Sharapova, who was facing a younger opponent in a Grand Slam final for the first time. “I mean, she's two points away from winning the first set in a Grand Slam final – you know, if you want it, take it. And she didn't.”

Holding on to that game proved pivotal for Sharapova, who had produced three double faults in her previous service game to get broken two games after taking a 4-2 lead. It was the last time she would face break point on her serve the entire match.

“I don't think today was my best serving performance of the [tournament],” said Sharapova, who struggled with her serve most of last year but has rediscovered her form. “I think I served better against Lindsay and Justine. But I did the things I needed to do in order to win the match.”

Though Ivanovic held on to a five-deuce game to open the second set, the errors piled up with increasing frequency – the last a wide shot on match point off her signature forehand side.

But while Sharapova has reached the stage where she will find it increasingly difficult to write off bad losses as learning experiences, the greener Ivanovic can still lay claim to that comfort. She performed more solidly than in her first Grand Slam final against Henin at the French Open, when she was overcome by nerves.

“It was definitely a better experience. I won more games,” said Ivanovic. “It's a little bit disappointing because I thought I had a lot of chances in that first set but didn't use them.  But, still, it's a learning experience for me. I fought hard, you know. I just felt a little bit let down with my forehand, made some big mistakes in crucial moments.”

Sharapova, meanwhile, barely put a foot wrong the whole tournament... but her entourage proved more clumsy, and a few prickly days ensued after the negative press reaction to father Yuri Sharapov’s throat-slashing gesture after the quarterfinals.

When standing at the mike with the trophy, however, Sharapova was able to craft her own narrative.

She began by referring to her one-sided loss in the finals last year and the injury-plagued months that followed, now wiped away with a win Down Under. Like Serena Williams a year earlier, she dedicated the win to a close member of her support team who had passed away – in this case, the mother of her hitting partner Michael Joyce. In a long and wide-ranging victor’s speech, Sharapova also mentioned a text message she received from Billie Jean King before the final: “Champions take chances and pressure is a privilege.”

“I woke up in the morning to the text and I had those incredible words in my mind during the match,” she told Australian television afterwards.

She’ll do well to remember them too. If she can stay healthy and maintain this level of play – something all the top women have struggled with in recent years—the privilege of pressure is something Sharapova will be feeling a lot more of over the coming season.