Sharapova slips into Wimbledon second round

Former champion Maria Sharapova, who has already written off her chances of a Wimbledon repeat as she feels her way back from a shoulder injury, moved into the second round on Monday.

The Russian, seeded 24, battled to a 7-5, 6-4 win over Ukrainian qualifier Viktoriya Kutuzova and will now face fellow tour glamour girl, Argentina’s Gisela Dulko for a place in the last 32.

Sharapova showed no signs of the shoulder trouble which sidelined her for 10 months with her most pressing problem being keeping her feet on the slippy Court One grass which prompted two awkward falls.

It wasn’t the smoothest performance from the 22-year-old former world number one as she was forced to come back from two early breaks in the first set to build a foundation for victory.

Sharapova, who made the quarter-finals of the French Open and the semi-finals of the Wimbledon warm-up event at Birmingham, insisted her right shoulder was fine.

“This is only my fourth tournament back after my surgery, on different surfaces. But the body and the shoulder are responding really well,” said the Russian whose campaign in 2008 ended in the second round as the injury began to bite.

Russia’s Maria Sharapova celebrates a point against Ukraine’s Viktoriya Kutuzova on the first day of the 2009 Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Club in southwest London, on June 22.

LONDON, AFP