WIMBLEDON, DAY 2

Sharapova soars over Ashley in glam match

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Maria Sharapova

Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

FROM WIMBLEDON – If the jury was out on Russian teen Maria Sharapova's prospects before the grasscourt season, they are in right now. The tall blonde with a fearsome forehand can really play.

In her glam-girl match against American darling Ashley Harkleroad Tuesday, the 16-year-old Sharapova ignored the frequent clocking of camera shutters and her opponent's attempt to match her grunt for grunt and destroyed her 6-2, 6-1. The 6-foot-tall aggressor crushed 30 winners and pumped up her serve into the 105-mph range. There wasn't a ball she didn't want to jump on and few that she didn't bury for winners.

"I really want to be No. 1 in the world," said the ambitious Sharapova, who lives in Florida but says she's a Russian at heart. "It's been my dream since I was a little girl. I know the way that I can play. I think when someone can play their best tennis, they can show really good things out there. That's basically what I try to do."

No fan of grass, Harkleroad was no where near the player who upset Daniela Hantuchova at Roland Garros. She's much shorter than Sharapova and for awhile there, looked like little Lleyton Hewitt did on Monday when 6-foot-10 giant Ivo Karlovic stomped on him.

"There's really nothing that I could have done," Harkleroad said. "She hit like probably 40 winners and she hardly missed a ball. She's a good player. She's going to go a long way."

Last week, Sharapova caused a stir en route to the semifinals of Birmingham, where her shrieking grunt caused a few of her opponents to complain and an official to warn her. She was compared to gargantuan grunter Monica Seles, but hasn't let it effect her play.

'JUST A MOUTH'
"It's just something that I've been doing all of my life, since I was 4," she said. "It's something that I try to control. But my mouth doesn't do anything, doesn't control the way I play. It's just a mouth."

Ashley Harkleroad

Susan Mullane/ Camerawork USA, Inc.

You have to like Harkleroad's willingness to dish it out and make a match entertaining when she isn't in top form. At one point during the contest, Harkleroad – not exactly a silent exhaler herself – grunted as loud as she could in order to top Sharapova in something. She certainly wasn't getting over on the Russian off the ground.

"She grunts loud," Harkleroad said. "Everybody knows that. I was just trying to make it a more relaxed atmosphere because I was getting my clock cleaned. A lot of girls say her grunt is ridiculous, but I've played her a couple other times and it's just normal. … I grunt pretty loud, too. If I'm playing her, I'm trying to be a little bit more loud."

The British press had dubbed the contest the "battle of the blonde babes", but the match was really between two teens who are deadly serious about their tennis. Both have obvious top-20 potential on court and marketers believe they have top five potential off court. Sharapova understands very well that some see her as the next Anna Kournikova and that she could become distracted by off court pursuits, but she doesn't appear too be very interested in modeling or acting at this point.

"If you go out there and think that Kournikova is on the other side of the court, you think, 'Oh, wow, it's Kournikova,' you might as well get out of the court right away," she said. "If you think the opposite, you're going to go out there and play your best, fight in order to beat her."

Sharapova came into match ranked No. 88 to Harkleroad's No. 39. Should she continue her standout play this summer, the Russian will likely end the year in the top 50 (the amount of tournaments she can play is age-restricted by the WTA). Both are hoping that they play again and both are hoping that the next time, it will mean a lot more than a first round win between two girls who happen to be blessed with cute smiles.

"Maybe I'll see her in the finals of a Grand Slam one year," Harkleroad said with a smile.

Now that would a match worth grunting for.