Sharapova, Wozniacki and Ivanovic All Fall at Wimbledon
Portugal’s Michelle Larcher de Brito upset number three seed Maria Sharapova in the second round of Wimbledon. Sharapova was the Wimbledon Champion in 2004, and she showed fight today by saving off four match points before finally succumbing. Larcher de Brito got the best of Sharapova by finally converting on one of those match points, defeating Sharapova 6-3, 6-4. Sharapova took a few falls on the grass, and her opponent was able to take advantage of her lack of mobility. De Brito is 19-years-old and is currently ranked 131st in the world. Her next opponent is Karin Knapp from Italy.
Sharapova, who won the grass court Grand Slam in 2004 as a 17-year-old, slipped a few 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-seeded 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. 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."
A day of upsets at Wimbledon continued on Wednesday as Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard defeated the12th-seeded Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 6-3 in the second round. The 19-year-old Bouchard is currently ranked 66th in the world and she had won the girls’ title at Wimbledon just last year. This was only Bouchard’s second appearance in a Grand Slam tournament and she ended up playing on Centre Court because of Victoria Azarenka withdrawing from the championships. She was up 5-3 in the first set, and won 12 of 13 points to get a break in the second. Out of her eight previous Wimbledon appearances, Ivanovic has only failed once to make it to the third round.
Caroline Wozniacki, former world number one, lost to Petra Cetkovska, who is ranked 196 in the world in Straight sets on Wednesday as well. The Czech-born Cetkovska was a 6-2, 6-2 winner, as Wozniaki couldn’t hold her serve, and Cetkovska broke her twice in each set. Cetkovska was able to hold off four break point chances from Wozniaki to win the match in just over an hour. Wozniacki was perhaps hobbled a bit by an ankle injury as she dropped serve in the third game, and at deuce in the next game, she fell and sat for a long time clutching her left ankle before calling for treatment.
