Sharapova crushes Karatantcheva

By Caroline Cheese
BBC Sport at Wimbledon

Latest results Day four pictures

Defending champion Maria Sharapova raced into the third round with a 6-0 6-1 win over Sesil Karatantcheva.

Rising star Karatantcheva, 15, demonstrated her potential in two hard-fought opening games but having lost both, she faded dramatically.

The over-awed Bulgarian did not win a point in the second set until she was 3-0 down, prompting a massive cheer from a sympathetic Court One crowd.

But Sharapova went on to wrap up a crushing win in under an hour.

Karatantcheva, who hit the headlines after beating Venus Williams at the French Open, was her own worst enemy.

Karatantcheva's serve played into Sharapova's hands Enlarge Image

She persisted with serving to Sharapova's forehand and paid the price, winning just 20% of points on her first serve and 6 out of 13 points (43%) on her second.

The teenager also committed 20 unforced errors and managed only three winners, which all came in the first set.

Sharapova, seeded second, will face Katarina Srebotnik on Saturday, after the Slovenian's win over Korea's Yoon Jeong Cho.

Afterwards Sharapova insisted she bore Karatantcheva no hard feelings, despite the teenager criticising her last year.

"That was a long time ago. She's grown up a lot since then," said Sharapova.

"Everybody talks and makes comments, that's normal. You just have to go out on the court and just play. The tennis does the talking all the time."