Sharapova not worried by Aus Open preparation

World number five Sharapova pulled out of the Brisbane International with an arm injury last week.

As a result, Sharapova has not played a single competitive match in the lead up to Australian Open, which gets underway on Monday.

But Sharapova said: "I feel really good. I got to Melbourne earlier than I wanted to, but it gave me a chance to practice here this week.

"I've had great days on a lot of the courts."

Sharapova said past experience meant it was easy for her to make such calls as she did to withdraw from Brisbane.

"[Withdrawing] always is a really tough decision. When you come to a tournament like Brisbane, where you're defending champion," Sharapova said.

"You find yourself in a tricky situation of, 'can I go out there, should I go out there? I have a pretty big event in 10 or 14 days'.

"I think experience helps in those moments. It's always very difficult because I'm someone that always sticks to the schedule that I make.

"But I think I've been fortunate in my career to have won grand slams and to kind of have a bigger picture of my goals.

"Sometimes I try not to focus on so many tournaments, not focus on rankings, and focus on being healthy, which is really, really important at a high professional sport."

Sharapova takes on Japan's Nao Hibino in the first round.