Dulko sends Sharapova packing

TENNIS WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS:MARIA SHARAPOVA is never a player to go gently anywhere. But the former Wimbledon champion arrived from a quarter-final run at Roland Garros and promptly declared that she may not have enough in the tank for a full tilt at the championship.

Almost before the words came out of her mouth, cynics were beginning to think that maybe the third favourite for the title this year doth protest too much. However, even they were tempered in their thinking by the fact that Sharapova is probably the most sincerely competitive player on the tour. It is an incandescent strength of hers. Maria never talks herself down.

Gisela Dulko from Argentina arrived with little light shinning on her career. Her best result of the year so far had been runner-up in a tournament in Bogota. Comparatively speaking the 24-year-old occupies a different tennis world to Sharapova, although, their orbits had collided twice before.

In those brief, concussive minor events Sharapova won 6-0, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-1. But yesterday the blue sky and light clouds racing over Centre Court provided a compelling image of the current state of the 2004 champion’s game – difficult to look at for a long time, but harmless and going nowhere in particular.

The kindly officials even closed the Centre Court roof a fraction at either end to put the fans in shadow and present them with a glare-free match and all the live action of a former champion duelling with a game in disrepair.

Sharapova knew she was in a dog fight after just 12 minutes of play. By that time Dulko, hitting big, serving strong and mixing the play cleverly with drop shots had claimed three games, equalling the combined haul of her previous two matches. She raced to the first set 6-2.

The omens then were bad as middle-aged men all around the Wimbledon campus experienced anxious darts of pain across their chests with the thought of the glamour queen no longer gracing the courts or TV screens after the third day.

More hardened thinkers believed there was a way back even at a set and 3-0 down. Sharapova’s career is littered with instances where she has feigned down-and-out only to rise from the ashes. But the fist pumps and the self-torment between points couldn’t raise her above what her body and just four previous tournaments allowed, although, those alone could not explain the variety and breadth of her unforced errors. Certainly the surgery she had 10 months ago ensured she was a minimum of 10 per cent off her best with Dulko playing above her own level. In that respect the outcome was not in doubt as such matches often turn on a couple of percentage points.

“If I’m smart enough I should know what happened,” said Sharapova. “It took me a little while to get going. It’s a little late to start picking yourself up when you are down a set and 3-0. You know it’s a little late.

“I had so many easy balls and I just made unforced errors from those. And I don’t really know if that’s because I haven’t played. When I’ve had those situations before, those balls would be pieces of cake and today they weren’t.”

The 22-year-old Russian, now ranked 60 in the world to Dulko’s 45, appeared serenely confused and although she successfully fought off four match points and had a flicker of a chance to turn the third set, the match deservedly went with the Argentine on her first visit to Centre Court. What is worrying is that behind the two Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, Sharapova was the most fancied to win.

“It’s tough to put (injury) out of your mind completely,” she added. “Sometimes in the middle of the match, in practice, before a return or before serving, it’s like, wow it’s amazing what I’ve been through. I sometimes have to knock it out of myself a little bit.”

The 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 result is the best of Dulko’s career in terms of the scalp. She has made the third round here in three previous championships but never before has she put such a hole in the draw.

“I was very nervous in the end. The last game was forever with me,” said Dulko. “I was very relieved after that game.”

More giant-killing episodes would nurse Dulko towards a meeting with Serena Williams later this week. The younger of the two American sisters chose yesterday to make a statement on the good health of her own game. Australian Jarmila Groth was the recipient of a 6-2 first-set mauling over 29 minutes and a 6-1 second set mugging over the same time for a tidy match.

Williams has had her concerns with injury in the past. “It definitely no easy feat,” she said. “You have to be really focused. You can kind of understand how much time it takes to actually get back to your top form.”

Not bad at tennis, Williams is also trying to be a screen writer. Blessed with William Morris Agency backing, she’s a go getter at that too. “See I’ve always been a writer,” she chirped warming to the subject.“Just write my story and then I will turn it in and someone will put it into treatment format.” It seems all so easy.