Maria Sharapova blasted her way into the second round of the Australian Open on Monday with a 6-3 6-1 victory over 15-year-old Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva.
The 17-year-old Russian, seeded fourth, crunched 15 winners as she eased to victory in exactly an hour.
Karatantcheva, the world number 110, showed few signs of nerves in just her second grand slam event as she matched Sharapova in the early stages.
Click her for photos of the match
The Russian sprayed 26 unforced errors around the court, but once she'd taken the first set, the result was never in doubt and a forehand over the baseline from the Bulgarian sealed Sharapova's victory.
Maria now plays American Lindsay Lee-Waters for a place in the third round. Maria has played Lee-Waters once before at last years Australian Open and Maria won 6-1 6-3.
January 17th, 2005
Posted by: Marco
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