Wimbledon: Sharapova’s challenge comes to a halt

Russian knocked out in second round; tournament sees several retirements .

LONDON:

Former Wimbledon champion and third-seed Maria Sharapova was knocked out of the tournament in the second round by Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher De Brito on a dramatic day.

The tall Russian was scheduled on Court Two and never looked happy against a tenacious opponent ranked 131 in the world, losing 6-3, 6-4 to leave the women’s draw in tatters after the earlier withdrawal of second-seed Victoria Azarenka.



Former world number one Sharapova needed treatment when trailing 4-3 in the second set after slipping and doing the splits behind the baseline, holding her hip after tumbling to the ground.

She went off court to be treated and resumed after a near 10-minute stoppage but the 2004 champion could not avoid one of her worst results at the All England Club.

“I saw how she fell pretty hard and I know these grass courts can be really slippery and can be quite dangerous,” said Larcher De Brito, who took victory on a fifth match point.

“There’s a lot of grass that’s been cut that didn’t get swept off and it made it quite slippery.”

Meanwhile, Azarenka limped out of the event and blasted the state of the All England Club courts which she believes are compromising player safety.



“I couldn’t be any more disappointed,” she said. “Wimbledon is a tournament I was looking so forward to. I love playing here. To not be able to play just because of bad luck is very, very frustrating.”

Wozniacki, Ivanovic ousted

In another upset, Caroline Wozniacki was the latest player left spread-eagled on the slippery turf as she limped out of Wimbledon following a 6-2, 6-2 second-round defeat by Czech Petra Cetkovska.

On the other hand, Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard took a surprise win over former world number one Ana Ivanovic in the second round taking just 63 minutes to clinch a 6-3, 6-3 win over the 12th seed Serb, who made the semi-finals in 2007.

Murray through

In the men’s draw, home favourite and second-seed Andy Murray beat Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was forced to retire from his Wimbledon second round match against Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis with a knee injury.

The French star was the seventh player to see his Wimbledon campaign ended by injury.

Apart from him and Azarenka, Steve Darcis, who put out Rafael Nadal in the first round, and Marin Cilic all withdrew.

John Isner and Radek Stepanek both quit during their second-round matches.

Just moments before Tsonga’s retirement, Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova withdrew from her second-round clash against 2011 champion Petra Kvitova, the eighth seed, with a right arm injury.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2013.

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