Raindrops were falling, her opponent was complaining, and Sharapova suddenly encountered some trouble as she tried to close out her third-round match at Wimbledon.
Showers wiped out most action at the All England Club on Saturday, and it was drizzling when 2004 champion Sharapova finally finished her 6-3, 6-3 victory despite the No. 26-seeded Ai Sugiyama’s animated protests it was too slick to play.
“I was starting to get agitated. I saw the rain in the middle of the second set, and I knew, if it keeps going, obviously the grass is going to get wet,” Sharapova said. “I didn’t want it to be too dangerous to play out there. But it worked out well in the end.”
Well, for her, anyway.
There was, not surprisingly, a different take on things from Sugiyama, whose best showing in 15 Wimbledon appearances ended with a loss to Sharapova in the quarterfinals three years ago.
“It was very wet at the end,” Sugiyama said. “Last two games were really slippery.”
In the only other singles match completed, defending champion Amelie Mauresmo beat No. 28 Mara Santangelo of Italy 6-1, 6-2 in 57 minutes to reach the fourth round.
Seven men’s and women’s singles matches were suspended in progress, and seven men’s matches were postponed entirely until Monday - when the forecast calls for more precipitation. The two-week tournament traditionally takes the middle Sunday off, and while rain-created backlogs in the past forced organizers to schedule matches on that day—most recently in 2004—the referee’s office announced Saturday that wouldn’t be necessary this year, even though five of six days so far have been interrupted.
Quarterfinal
So three-time champion Venus Williams could have not one but two sleepless nights pondering her second-set struggles against 71st-ranked Akiko Morigami of Japan. Williams won the first set 6-2 but was trailing 1-4 in the next when play was halted. The winner meets Sharapova for a quarterfinal berth.
In other matches carried over to Monday, French Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic, No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 11 Nadia Petrova, No. 12 Elena Dementieva and No. 14 Nicole Vaidisova each was up a set. No. 7 Tomas Berdych took the first set of the only men’s match that got under way. Among those who didn’t play a point in their third-round matches Saturday: three-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal and 2002 Wimbledon winner Lleyton Hewitt.
“These kind of days, you don’t (want) to burn too much energy, because you could (be) ready to play at 1 (p.m.), but go on the court at 7 at night,” Mauresmo said. (AP)
