Vinci won't go away. She's tenacity in purple and getting good cheers too. She's saved four break points, but yet another Sharapova jackhammer return sets up a fifth...

If the forehand is iffy, that Sharapova double-handed backhand remains a weapon of mass destruction. A return in the hitting zone is walloped with a punch of the air. Yet another deuce. (The fourth?) I hope you haven't got dinner plans...

Understandably, there are signs of rust, especially on the forehand side. Two chances go, but the purple-clad Vinci is benevolent enough to gift another away with a double fault. Once more the forehand lets the lanky Sharapova down. On we go...

It's jam packed in Stuttgart. Ban or no ban, Sharapova remains a draw. Good lord, that sort of forehand should come with a health warning. Two break-back points...

Sharapova is taking some long-held frustration out on the poor balls. Two break points saved with a fair amount of brutality. There's too much pudding in the end, though, another forehand too long.

You know the sort of welcome back you get at arrivals in an airport? All kisses and cuddles from someone who can't wait to see you? Sharapova ain't getting that.

Has anyone missed the Sharapova grunt well she's been away? It's like she's enduring a horribly violent sneeze every time she hits the ball. The serve is rusty - a double fault. The ball toss awry too - that could just be nerves. Slicey-dicey Vinci. Three break points...

Sharapova, almost a foot taller than her opponent, is giving forehands the sort of mustard you'd expect after 15 months on the shelf. Some are a bit too keen, though. Only one lands on the posh bit and Vinci has a simple hold to 15.

Welcome back, Maria.

Warm-ups done, Italian Vinci won the toss and elected to serve.

Time, please. It's like being in the pub...

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Let's talk sporting comebacks. Not those Fancy Dan pros, but the times you came back. Did you win your first tennis match in a decade? Score a century in your first cricket match since school? Did you smash the kids at Fifa? Let me know.

The players are already on court, striding on to the red clay to the accompaniment of dance music and flashing lights.

Sharapova got no noticeable bad reception. As she was before she went away, she is all business - shadow shots and icy gaze.

The Russian has been granted wildcards to events in Rome and Madrid, as well as this first round in Stuttgart on the earliest possible day that she could return.

The likes of Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniack have voiced their displeasure, along with Italian Roberta Vinci, who will be on the opposite side of the net in Germany. 

It's not Maria Sharapova's return that is ruffling feathers, more the manner of it.

Fifteen months after she last played, the five-time Grand Slam winner is back following a ban for the use of banned drug meldonium.

However, some aren't happy at the treatment she's getting.

And there are some that are downright controversial...

Image source, Reuters

...some should have stayed away.

Image source, Getty Images

...some are glorious...

Image source, Allsport

Some comebacks are inevitable...

Image source, Getty Images