Maria Sharapova Crashes Out In Second Round

4 months ago 25th Jun 10:54

Maria Sharapova was the big name in the women's side of the draw that crashed out of Wimbledon yesterday.

Despite on her way back from nine months out with a shoulder injury the former Champion was seeded twenty fourth and was the bookies favourite to lift the title.

But the Russian looked out of sorts in the first set against the little known Gisela Dulko as she opened up a 3-0 lead before taking the first set 6-2 in just thirty five minutes.

It seemed that a swift victory for the underdog was on the cards as she took another 3-0 in the second as Sharapova's serve deserted her.

But the gutsy Russia was not beaten and began to fight back taking six games on the bounce to level the match at one set a piece.

Taking the opening game of the third set it looked like Sharapova was finally comfortable with her game as Dulko began to falter as errors crept into her game.

But Dulko stood her ground to hold her serve then break to take a 2-1 lead. Towards the back of the set Sharapova's lack of matches really began to show as she double faulted to give her opponent break points, which she took to open up a 4-3 lead.

The crowd were well and truly on the side of Dulko as the noise from Sharapova grew to ridiculous levels as she tried to screech her way into the next round.

Dulko wasted four match points before holding her nerve to force Sharapova sealing an infamous win 6-2 3-6 6-4.

There was not such trouble for the second seed Serena Williams as she made light work of her Australian opponent Jarmila Groth 6-2 6-1.

Williams sealed her victory in under an hour and looks in impressive form that could see her lift the title once again.

There was also a good victory for fourth seed Elena Dementieva as she took the first set easily 6-1.

But she ran into a little trouble in the second as Rezai managed an early break of serve before regaining control to come through the match 6-1 6-3.

It was a more comfortable day for the seeds than yesterday as there were easy wins for Vera Zvonareva who beat Mathilde Johansson 6-1 6-3 while Victoria Azarenka blasted past Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-0 6-0.

There were also wins for Laura Robson's conqueror Hantuchova, Sugiyama, Bartoli, Petrova and  Cibulkova. And some peace was restored to SW19 as on court screecher Larcher De Brito, who upset tennis fans at the French Open with her noise, crashed out.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw