Serena, Wozniacki, Sharapova roll; Stosur exits Wimbledon

Tennis Betting Lines

06/22/2010 - Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Serena Williams began her quest for a fourth Wimbledon title with an easy straight-set win over Portugal's Michelle Larcher De Brito, while third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki and former champion Maria Sharapova also rolled, and French Open runner-up Samantha Stosur was a surprise opening-round loser Tuesday at the All England Club.

The top-seeded Williams, who captured her third Wimbledon crown last year and took the Australian Open title for a fifth time earlier this year, needed just 63 minutes to post a 6-0, 6-4 rout on Day 2 of this fortnight.

Williams dominated the first set in 22 minutes, ripping off 20 winners to her opponent's two and breaking serve three times. The second set was more competitive, but the 12-time Grand Slam champ never faced a break point and completed the match with her 15th ace.

The 28-year-old Williams was impressed with the 17-year-old Larcher de Brito's power.

"She definitely packs a punch," Williams said. "It was good for me, because most people that do play nowadays hit really hard. It was good to get someone that hit really hard early on."

Up next for Williams will be former top-10 Russian Anna Chakvetadze, who rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Germany's Andrea Petkovic, a grass-court runner-up to Justine Henin in The Netherlands last week.

The U.S. Open runner-up Wozniacki waltzed past Italian veteran Tathiana Garbin 6-1, 6-1 in a mere 48 minutes, while a 16th-seeded Sharapova drilled fellow Russian Anastasia Pivovarova 6-1, 6-0 in a brisk 54 minutes.

The former world No. 1 Sharapova is a three-time major champion, including an upset victory over Serena in the 2004 Wimbledon finale.

Up next for Sharapova will be Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru, while Wozniacki will meet Taipei's Kai-Chen Chang.

A sixth-seeded Stosur, meanwhile, was knocked out in 6-4, 6-4 fashion by big- hitting Estonian Kaia Kanepi, who popped eight aces and broke Stosur's serve three times, compared to only one break for Stosur, who considers grass her worst surface.

Stosur reached her first career major final three weeks ago in Paris, where she was upset by Italian Francesca Schiavone in the French Open finale. Schiavone exited the Wimbledon draw here on Monday.

"No doubt it's a quick turnaround," Stosur said. "The champions of the game can do it back to back. That's the kind of pedestal that you want to try to look up to and try to get to yourself."

Some other winners on Day 2 included seventh-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, ninth-seeded Chinese Li Na, 10th-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy, 14th-seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, and 19th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia. Radwanska notched a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Hungary's Melinda Czink, while Li topped South African Chanelle Scheepers 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, Pennetta rolled to a 6-4, 6-0 triumph over Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues, and Azarenka doused Croat Mirjana Lucic 6-3, 6-3. The two-time major champion Kuznetsova, however, struggled past Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova, 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4.

Chinese Zheng Jie, seeded 23rd here, cruised past France's Pauline Parmentier 7-5, 6-3, while Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova upended 25th-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 and 31st-seeded Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru held off 39-year-old Japanese Kimiko Date Krumm 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 6-1.

Other seeded winners on Tuesday were No. 18 Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai, No. 29 Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and No. 32 Italian Sara Errani.

Several other women reached the second round, including the aforementioned Chakvetadze, Czech veteran Klara Zakopalova and Aussie Anastasia Rodionova.

The second round will get underway here on Wednesday, including matches for second-seeded five-time champion Venus Williams, fourth-seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic, eighth-seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters and 17th-seeded Belgian Justine Henin.

The former world No. 1 and 2009 Wimbledon runner-up Venus will take on Russian Ekaterina Makarova, while the former top-ranked star Jankovic will meet Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, the U.S. open champion and former No. 1 Clijsters will face Croat Karolina Sprem, and the Aussie Open runner-up and former top- ranked stalwart Henin will battle German Kristina Barrois. Henin is a two-time runner-up here and was a titlist in The Netherlands last week.