Defending ladies' champion Maria Sharapova of Russia has easily reached the third round of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London by ousting Sesil Karatantcheva of Bulgaria in straight sets.
Sharapova lost only one game in the match, beating the 15-year-old Bulgarian, 6-0, 6-1. The Russian second seed takes on Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik, a straight-set winner over South Korea's Yoon Jeong Cho (7-5, 6-4).
In other matches, 16th-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France defeated Britain's Jan O'Donoghue (6-2, 6-1). Number-20 seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia took three sets to beat Israel's Shahar Peer (6-2, 2-6, 6-3). Eleni Daniilidou of Greece ousted American player Laura Granville (6-2, 6-0).
In men's play, Britain's Tim Henman takes on Russian Dmitry Tursunov while American Andy Roddick faces Daniele Bracciali of Italy. French Open champion Rafael Nadal of Spain plays Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.
Some information for this report provided by AFP.
