Sharapova out
Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova has suffered the earliest loss of her celebrated Wimbledon career, upset in three marathon sets by Russian qualifier Vitalia Diatchenko in Tuesday’s dramatic final act of the opening round.
Sharapova has waited almost three years to win a match on grass and, despite leading the double-handed but single-minded Diatchenko by a set and 5-2 on her return to the All England Club, the 31-year-old will now need to wait at least 11 months more.
An 11th double fault on match point ensured Sharapova would join Petra Kvitova, the pre-Championships favourite and another of the five past titleholders in the draw, in the exit queue. The 6-7(3), 7-6(3), 6-3 defeat is the first opening round loss in 14 Wimbledon campaigns for Sharapova, the ladies' singles champion of 2004 and the runner-up in 2011.
The sun was about to set by the time it finished, the match having stretched over three hours. Not only had Sharapova failed to serve it out at 5-3 in the second set, she also twice had service breaks in the third on which she failed to capitalise.
Serious mismatch
On paper it was a serious mismatch: Sharapova’s 53rd major, and Diatchenko’s seventh. One Russian has 36 career titles; the other nil. And as for career prize money and endorsement income, well, that difference is greater still.
But it was a brave performance from the Moscow-based 27-year-old, who twice called the trainer for lower back issues, and took a medical timeout in the first set. Her first Grand Slam victory away from Roland-Garros delivered a second round meeting with young Russian-born American Sofia Kenin.
Sharapova was a semi-finalist the last time she played at The Championships back in 2015, before being sidelined for an anti-doping violation, and then enduring an injury-interrupted comeback in 2017. Having rebuilt her ranking from 180 to 22 in the past year, she was surprisingly toppled by a countrywoman ranked No.132.
The No.24 seed here, she showed some promising form in reaching the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros, but then chose not to play a grass court lead-up event, and looked scratchy for much of the match - particularly, and certainly not unusually, on serve.
The all-Russian encounter was high on decibels but low on convincing service games, with six breaks - including four in succession - in the first set. Errors were also outnumbering winners by a ratio of almost two to one, before the tie-break mercifully decided it in Sharapova’s favour.
But she could not finish the job, and her last double-fault was one of three in the tense deciding set.
“I definitely had several chances in the match,’’ Sharapova said. “Although not playing my best tennis, I opened up a few doors and was a couple points away from winning this match.
“Kept, you know, doing that in the third, as well. But just sometimes you put yourself in a better or winning position, and you don't finish through. That was the case today.’’
Sharapova said she would have liked to play in Birmingham, as originally planned, but needed to rest her body after a demanding clay court season.
“I felt I made that mistake of playing far too many tournaments in consecutive weeks. The clay season was a lot of matches, much more than I've played in a really long time.
“Yeah, it would have been great to play an event, but I had to make a decision for my body and for my longevity rather than to go and play a few matches.’’
Despite having not yet reach a Grand Slam semi-final in five attempts since her return to tennis, Sharapova said she believed she had made significant progress in recent months.
“I find myself in a much better position than at this time last year,’’ she said. “I think the fight, the motivation. Obviously the health. That's crucial, to be able to keep putting the work in.
"In a matter of a couple points, maybe the situation could have been different. I would have been here saying, I didn't play my best tennis, I'm giving myself another chance. But it's not. I have to take away the things that didn't work well for me and get back and work through those, look for my next opportunities.’’