Wimbledon 2010: Sixth seed Sam Stosur makes shock exit

Wimbledon Championships
Venue: All England Club, London Date: 21 June - 4 July
Coverage: Live on BBC One and Two, HD, Red Button, BBC Sport website (UK only), Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra; live text commentary online and on mobile phones; watch again on BBC iPlayer Full details of BBC coverage

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Stosur reached her first Grand Slam final in Paris last month

Australian sixth seed Sam Stosur crashed out of Wimbledon at the first hurdle in a straight-sets defeat by Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi.

World number six Stosur, 26, a runner-up in the French Open final in May, went out 6-4 6-4 to a player ranked 74 places below her in the world.

Third seed Caroline Wozniacki, 19, eased through with a 6-1 6-1 win in 48 minutes over Italy's Tathiana Garbin.

Maria Sharapova romped past fellow Russian Anastasia Pivovarova 6-1 6-0.

Seventeen-year-old Pivovarova had no answers to her fellow Russian's first serve as the 16th seed and 2004 champion took only 54 minutes to race into round two.

Sharapova, who underwent major shoulder surgery in 2008, was in impressive form and afterwards declared she had reignited her passion for the game.

"My joy in the game is pretty up there with what it was before I got injured - maybe even more so," said the Russian, who will next face Ioana Raluca Olaru after the Romanian fended off France's Alize Cornet 5-7 6-4 6-4.

"Tennis was taken away from me for such a long period of time that it made me realise how blessed you are when you're actually on court.

"I feel that on my better days I can beat anyone again."

Whether Sharapova can find the game that won her Wimbledon six years ago as a 17-year-old remains to be seen.

Sharapova's last Grand Slam win came at the 2008 US Open

However, speaking after her own convincing first-round victory, 19-year-old Dane Wozniacki suggested that the increasingly competitive nature of women's tennis meant age was a less of a factor than ever in determining a player's success.

"I think the tour has just become very tough," said world number four Wozniacki. "I really think that age doesn't matter.

"I think you can be 30 and be on the top of the ranking, and you can be 17. It really doesn't matter. It's just about going out there, doing your best, and you can see how far you can go, how far your own limits are."

Earlier on Court 18, it looked like Stosur might avoid an upset when she saved three match points to hold her serve at 5-3 in the second.

But Kanepi, who reached the quarter-finals of the Aegon Classic at Edgbaston earlier this month, saved break points in the next game before holding on for victory.

Stosur, while admitting her disappointment, believed Kanepi's lowly world ranking belied her ability.

"She's a quality opponent." said the 26-year-old. "She has been ranked a lot higher than what she is. For whatever reason, she slipped back.

"She's definitely played a lot of matches recently as well. She qualified at the French as well as here and has been playing well, so it wasn't an easy first round by any means.

"The last couple of days I practised quite well, tried to prepare for the match as best I could. I did everything I could to allow myself to play well. I just didn't play my best."

606: DEBATE Schiavone is still celebrating and Stosur must still be trying to work out how she played so poorly in that final as she hasn't played a decent set of tennis since the RG semi final erictheblueuk

Stosur's shock early loss follows the departure of the woman who beat her in Paris last month, Francesca Schiavone - making this the first Championships in which both Roland Garros finalists have gone out in the first round.

Fifth-seeded Italian Schiavone remains the biggest casualty in the women's draw so far after losing in three sets to Russian Vera Dushevina on Monday.

Seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska eased into the next round with a straight-sets victory over Hungarian Melinda Czink.

World number nine Radwanska, who has lost at the last eight stage in the past two years, advanced 6-3 6-3.

Another of last year's quarter-finalists, 14th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, swept aside Croatia's Mirjana Lucic 6-3 6-3.

Chinese ninth seed Li Na, who beat Sharapova in the final of this year's Aegon Classic, continued her good form on grass by beating South African Chanelle Scheepers 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.

Flavia Pennetta, seeded 10th, also enjoyed a straightforward passage against Anabel Medina Garrigues.

After battling to take the first set 6-4, Pennetta totally overran the unseeded Spaniard 6-0 in the second.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2005 finalist, was forced to go the distance against Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova.

The 19th-seeded Russian easily won the opener 6-2 but lost 7-5 in a second-set tie-break before avoiding a surprise exit by taking the decider 6-4.

Chinese 23rd seed Jie Zheng overcame France's Pauline Parmentier 7-5 6-4, Czech 25th seed Lucie Safarova fell to Dominika Cibulkova, of Slovakia, 7-6 (7-5) 6-4, while French 18th seed Aravane Rezai beat Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-7 (8-10) 6-2 7-5.