Sharapova Brutally Into Third Round at Wimbledon

While the "global icon" has seemingly put at least as much effort into her off-court money-making promotions as her on-court training, her game nor will to win have not suffered in the least, evidenced Thursday by her 6-0, 6-1 absolute-thrashing of talented 15-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva.

Sharapova suffered through an almost-eight minute opening service game before holding, then things got considerably easier as the Bulgarian teen crumbled under the Russian teen's strength of shot and mighty screeches.

"I knew it wasn't going to be an easy match," said Sharapova, perhaps confusing her match with another. "Mentally from the first point on, even though I was down 15-40 in the first game, I was still mentally really tough. I just played great tennis today...Returning and serving was a big key today. It's always a big key on grass, but I think I did that really well."

Karatantcheva, the sometimes-delightfully petulant youngster who knocked Venus Williams out of the French Open last month, seemed overwhelmed by the Court 1 surroundings, blowing two break points in the first game then hardly getting a look afterwards.

Contrasting the swift advance of Sharapova was last year's runner-up Serena Williams, with the No. 4 seed struggling through another round with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Italy's Mara Santangelo.

Looking chunky and lacking confidence after pulling from the French Open and grasscourt warm-up events with a bad ankle, the former Wimbledon champ's problems were evident in her lack of proper footwork and a dour expression after falling behind 0-4 in the opening set.

"I'm working on playing through the pain," said Serena, whose father told her not to play Wimbledon with her ankle injury. "Some days it feels good. In general, as long as I tape it, it's OK. But I have to have pretty heavy taping on it."

Other seeded winners Thursday were (8) Nadia Petrova (d. Beltrame), (12) Mary Pierce (d. Vakulenko 9-7 in the third), (14) Venus Williams (d. Pratt), (16) Nathalie Dechy (d. O'Donoghue, bagel in the second), (19) Ana Ivanovic (d. Foretz), (20) Daniela Hantuchova (d. Peer in three), and (26) Flavia Pennetta (d. Dulko).

"I just felt like I was probably rushing a little bit because she was retrieving a lot of balls, not really making too many errors," Venus said on her tight two-setter with the Aussie Pratt. "So I felt like I needed to take my time and try to move forward."

Orchestrating upsets on the lawns were Czech Kveta Peschke (d. (11) Zvonareva in three), American Jill Craybas (d. (29) Bartoli), and Zimbabwe's Cara Black (d. (32) Razzano).

Winners in all-unseeded match-ups were former champ Conchita Martinez (d. Brandi), Greek Eleni Daniilidou (d. Granville, bagel in the second), Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik (d. Cho), and the Ukraine's Alyona Bondarenko (d. Panova in three).

On court Friday at Wimbledon are (15) Clijsters vs. Vinci, (1) Davenport vs. (30) Safina, (27) Vaidisova vs. (5) Kuznetsova, (6) Dementieva vs. Washington, (3) Mauresmo vs. Perry, (9) Myskina vs. (17) Jankovic, (13) Likhovtseva vs. (22) Farina Elia, and Ant. Serra Zanetti vs. Maleeva.