The Hindu : Sport : Dulko grounds Sharapova; Cirstea defeats Sania

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Dulko grounds Sharapova; Cirstea defeats Sania

Nirmal Shekar

Devvarman & Anderson stretch Bhupathi & Knowles; Amritraj & Qureshi pull off upset victory

Sharapova was Wimbledon champion in 2004
Bhupathi and Knowles beat Devvarman and Anderson

— Photo: AP

PACKING A PUNCH: Sorana Cirstea, a quarterfinalist at Roland Garros, was far too consistent and powerful from the back of the court for Sania Mirza to have things her way.

London: Fairytales are to be found, well, only in fairytales. Life makes a mockery of such fantasies — not the least, life in the world of sport.

Ask Maria Sharapova. At age 22, she knows all about how capricious life in the sporting cauldron can be.

In July 2004, when she stunned Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final to signal her arrival at the game’s greatest cathedral as the sport’s newest golden girl — and then offered the world an unforgettable Kodak moment as she anxiously fumbled with her mobile keypad in an unsuccessful attempt to ring her mother — few might have imagined that the Russian diva would, five years on, enter the tournament world ranked No. 60. Or, that she would be evicted from her beloved Centre Court as early as in the second round of the 123rd Wimbledon championship.

But then, some would say that given Sharapova’s long absence and her place in the rankings now, the loss would not have registered too high on the game’s Richter Scale — certainly not as high as her grunts would on a Gruntometer.

Sania Mirza’s 6-4, 6-4 loss to Sorana Cirstea of Romania, which came a half hour after Sharapova’s exit, would have shocked no one but the Indian fans on Court No. 12. Cirstea is world ranked No. 27 and at the French Open a few weeks ago she had beaten Jelena Jankovic to make the quarterfinals.

Roller-coaster

After enacting the sport’s best-loved story — a rags-to-riches tale stretching across two continents — the 17-year old Sharapova appeared to have the world at her feet.

And that is exactly where it stayed tantalisingly for a while before reality paid an unannounced visit.

Since then, it has been a roller-coaster ride for the woman whose name fetches 5,430,000 results in exactly 0.09 seconds on Google and whose face is the most photographed in sport.

Sharapova did win the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian in January 2008 but a serious shoulder injury required an operation and she returned to the circuit only in May this year after a 10-month absence.

In the event, the former World No. 1 came into the championships with a load off her shoulders. Expectations were not too high.

Yet, Wednesday’s 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 defeat at the hands of Gisela Dulko of Argentina, ranked 15 places above the Russian, would be hard to digest for Sharapova — this, simply because she had fought so hard to get back into the match after teetering on the very brink in the second set.

Down a set and 0-3, Sharapova grunted and ground-stroked her way uphill, accompanied by a comforting swell of ovation from a crowd that desperately wanted her to stay alive in the championship.

After spending the first half of the match in futile pursuit of unreachable balls and coming up short on critical points, Sharapova winnowed the groundstroke errors from her game and won six games in a row to take the second set.

Suddenly, shots that were missing the lines by several inches were bang on target as Sharapova turned the tables, progressively escalating her tempo.

But one poor service game — the seventh game of the decider — which featured some gritty play from Dulko, saw Sharapova fall behind.

No matter that, Dulko appeared capable of making the crowd’s dream come true as she choked on matchpoint after matchpoint in the ninth game. Finally, after she had challenged a line call and earned her fifth matchpoint, the 24-year-old Argentine closed out the contest, courtesy an overhit Sharapova forehand.

Rising star

Cirstea was far too consistent and powerful from the back of the court for Sania to have things her way. The 19-year old Romanian, who climbed from 106 to 37 in the rankings last year, winning her first career title in Tashkent, loves solving crossword puzzles.

On Wednesday, she solved the Sania-puzzle with ease, barring a brief spell in the second set when the Indian broke to 3-1.

The fifth game of the first set was perhaps the most crucial in the match. Sania fought off five breakpoints before a double fault saw her lose serve. From that point, there was not a lot of drama as the Romanian claimed the set.

What was obvious was that Sania was being outplayed on the longer points, often struggling to stay in the point past four of five shots.

But there was hope early in the second set when she broke to 3-1. Then again, she failed to consolidate, losing the very next service game.

Finally, Cirstea broke again in the ninth game before taking the match on her first matchpoint, Sania’s ambitious forehands flying past the baseline on the last two points.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles, seeded four in the men’s doubles event, had to dig deep to beat India’s Somdev Devvarman and his South African partner Kevin Anderson. The experienced Bhupathi and Knowles won 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 in three hours and 15 minutes.

Later in the afternoon, India’s Prakash Amritraj and his Pakistani partner Aisam Qureshi, who had made it to the doubles main draw through the qualifying event, upset the 16th seeded pair of Stephen Huss of Australia and Briton Ross Hutchins, completing a 6-4, 6-7(12), 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory in a match that was suspended late last evening at two sets apiece.

THE RESULTS

Prefix denotes seeding

Men: Second round: 9-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) w/o Simone Bolelli (Ita); 28-Mardy Fish (USA) bt Janko Tipsarevic (Srb) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4; Dudi Sela Isr) bt 18-Rainer Schuettler (Ger) 7-6 3), 6-3, 6-2; 4-Novak Djokovic (Srb) bt Simon Greul (Ger) 7-5, 6-1, 6-4; 15- Tommy Robredo (Esp) bt Stefan Koubek (Aut) 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-1; 2-Roger Federer (Sui) bt Guillermo Garcia Lopez 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.

32-Albert Montanes (Esp) bt Guillermo Canas (Arg) 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; 7-Fernando Verdasco (Esp) bt Kristof Vliegen (Bel) 7-6(3), 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 6-4; 24-Tommy Haas (Ger) bt Michael Llodra (Fra) 4-3 (retd.); 27-Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) bt Ivo Minar (Cze) 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2, 8-6.

First round:Daniel Gimeno-Traver Esp) bt Taylor Dent (USA) 7-5, 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-7(3), 6-4; Philipp Petzschner Ger) bt Rajeev Ram (USA) 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(3), 6-1.

Mischa Zverev (Ger) bt 25-Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) 6-4, 6-2, 3-0 retired; 23-Radek Stepanek (Cze) bt Alejandro Falla (Col) 6-4, 6-4, 6-1; Potito Starace (Ita) bt Jose Acasuso (Arg) 7-6(0), 6-3 retired; Fabio Fognini (Ita) bt Denis Istomin (Uzb) 1-6, 6-7(3), 6-4, 3-1 retired. 3-Andy Murray (Gbr) bt Robert Kendrick (USA) 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4; 19-Stanislas Wawrinka (Sui) bt Eduardo Schwank (Arg) 7-5, 6-4, 6-1; Pablo Cuevas (Uru) bt Christophe Rochus Bel) 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 11-9; Jesse Levine (USA) bt 14-Marat Safin (Rus) 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4; Juan Carlos Ferrero (Esp) bt Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-3; 8-Gilles Simon (Fra) bt Bobby Reynolds (USA) 6-4, 6-3, 6-3; Michael Llodra (Fra) bt Joshua Goodall (Gbr) 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Doubles: First round: 4-Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) & Mark Knowles (Bah) bt Somdev Devvarman (Ind) & Kevin Anderson (RSA) 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5, 7-5; Prakash Amritraj (Ind) & Aisam Qureshi (Pak) bt 16-Stephen Huss (Aus) & Ross Hutchins (GBr) 6-4, 6-7(12), 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Women: Second round: Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) bt 16-Zheng Jie (Chn) 6-3, 7-5; 14-Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) bt Urszula Radwanska (Pol) 6-2, 6-4; 10-Nadia Petrova (Rus) bt Shahar Peer (Isr) 6-3, 6-2; Ai Sugiyama (Jpn) bt Arantxa Parra Santonja (Esp) 7-6 (5), 6-3; 26-Virginie Razzano (Fra) bt Jill Craybas (USA) 6-3, 6-0; Elena Vesnina (Rus) bt Vera Dushevina (Rus) 6-3, 6-4.

Gisela Dulko (Arg) bt 24-Maria Sharapova (Rus) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4; 28-Sorana Cirstea (Rou) bt Sania Mirza (Ind) 6-4, 6-4; 8-Victoria Azarenka (Blr) bt Ioana Raluca Olaru (Ros) 6-0, 6-0; 2-Serena Williams (USA) bt Jarmila Groth (Aus) 6-2, 6-1; 7-Vera Zvonareva (Rus) bt Mathilde Johansson (Fra) 6-1, 6-3; Roberta Vinci (Ita) bt 31-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) 6-4, 7-6(6).

First round: Kirsten Flipkens (Bel) bt 30-Agnes Szavay (Hun) 7-5, 6-4; 17-Amelie Mauresmo (Fra) bt Melinda Czink (Hun) 6-1, 4-6, 6-2; 15-Flavia Pennetta (Ita) bt Nuria Llagostera (Esp) 3-6, 6-1, 6-0; Tathiana Garbin (Ita) bt Alberta Brianti (Ita) 6-4, 6-3; 20-Anabel Medina Garrigues (Esp) bt Marta Domachowska (Pol) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Patricia Mayr (Aut) bt Anne Keothavong (Gbr) 7-5, 6-2.

5-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt Akiko Morigami (Jpn) 6-3, 7-6(1); Carla Suarez (Esp) bt 25-Kaia Kanepi (Est) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3; 13-Ana Ivanovic (Srb) bt Lucie Hradecka (Cze) 5-7, 6-2, 8-6; 11-Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) bt Marma Josi Martinez (Esp) 7-5, 6-1; Peng Shuai (Chn) bt Alexa Glatch (USA) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

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