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Sharapova shocked by Kudryavtseva

June 26, 2008 23:07 IST

Maria Sharapova became the latest big-name casualty at Wimbledon on Thursday when she was humbled 6-2, 6-4 in the second round by fellow-Russian Alla Kudryavtseva.

The 2004 champion never got going against her 20-year-old opponent and produced a performance littered with costly errors at crucial moments.

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Sharapova struggled with her service throughout and was broken in the sixth and eighth games to lose the opening set.

She fell a break behind again in the second set and, although she battled back to 4-4, she served an eighth double fault to hand her opponent a match point. Kudryavtseva sealed a famous win with a crunching forehand.

Earlier, French Open runner-up Dinara Safina moved comfortably into the third round with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei.

A day after older brother Marat stunned second seed Novak Djokovic, Safina overpowered her slender opponent with some bruising baseline play.

Ninth seed Safina took a while to find her range but from 3-3 in the first set she had too much firepower for her opponent and raced to victory in exactly one hour.

Safina now has a chance to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon for the first time at her sixth attempt when she faces Israel's Shahar Peer.

Source: REUTERS
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