LONDON: Former Wimbledon champion and third seed Maria Sharapova slid to a shock second-round exit on Wednesday when she was beaten 6-3 6-4 by Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito.
The tall Russian, who won the grasscourt grand slam in 2004 as a 17-year-old, slipped over a couple of times during the match and received lengthy treatment after a particularly nasty fall in the seventh game of the second set.
Even before the tumble, which was very similar to the one that ended up forcing second seed Victoria Azarenka to withdraw with a knee injury, Sharapova was outplayed by the world number 131 who sealed victory on her fifth match point when her opponent netted a forehand.
Sharapova’s exit came hours after the withdrawal of second seed Azarenka, who called for Wimbledon officials to investigate why the courts were so slippery after several players suffered falls, and their departure opens up the bottom half of the draw.
Former world number one Sharapova never looked happy on Court Two against a tenacious opponent, who shares the same noisy style of play as the four-times grand slam champion and hails from the same Florida tennis academy.
While being treated in the second set after the tumble that left her clutching her hip, Sharapova appeared to complain to the umpire that the surface was “dangerous”.
She went off court to continue treatment and resumed after a near 10-minute stoppage but the Russian, who seemed to struggle with her serve in an all-round error-ridden performance, could not avoid one of her worst results at the All England Club.
However, it was a pleasant experience for Andy Murray as he easily despatched Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun 6-3 6-3 7-5 with maximum efficiency on Wednesday to reach the third round at Wimbledon and avoided the injury pitfalls that sent several players tumbling.
Britain’s second seed came into the match having suffered a chastening defeat by the 75th ranked Lu at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and for the first handful of games it looked like he might be in for a testing afternoon.
Any chance of an upset was realistically quashed, however, when Murray broke in the sixth game of the first set. He then broke twice more in the second and came out on top in a nip and tuck third. (Agencies)
