Maria Sharapova came from behind to claim an ultimately comfortable 4-6 6-4 6-0 victory over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the first round of the Madrid Open on Sunday.

Sharapova made her comeback in April following a 15-month ban for failing a drugs test, reaching the semi-finals at the Stuttgart Open – a performance that saw her re-enter the WTA rankings at number 262.

An exhibition defeat to Monica Puig in the Spanish capital followed and her Madrid Open campaign threatened to be a short one as the controversial wildcard entry fell a set down to Lucic-Baroni.

However, the fired-up Russian fought back against the world number 20 to set up a second-round clash with Eugenie Bouchard.