Defending ladies' champion Maria Sharapova has eased into the quarter-finals with a straight sets win over Nathalie Dechy of France 6-4 6-2.


Both Sharapova and Dechy reached the semifinals at the Australian Open earlier this year.


The second-seeded Sharapova, who has won 21 straight matches on grass, had lost only 11 games in her first three matches at the All England Club.





In the next round Maria will either play fellow Russian Nadia Petrova or Kveta Peschke...

QUESTION:
A bit different to your first two matches out there today?



MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Yeah, a lot tougher I think. The score doesn't say much about the match. It was a lot tougher than it seemed. Even though I was up in the first set, thought that she was able, you know, to come up with some good shots and put me in difficult situations. But I was able to, uhm, serve well when I needed to, even though I wasn't serving quite well throughout the whole match.

B...

Defending champion Maria Sharapova sent Katarina Srebotnik sprawling to the grass in vain pursuit of a shot, then hit a forehand winner on the next point Saturday to close out a third-round victory at Wimbledon 6-2, 6-4.



Sharapova has lost just 11 games so far, but her play was more erratic than in the first two rounds. She shanked an overhead, blew an easy volley and finished with 21 unforced errors, including 14 in the first six games.


Still, the second-seeded Sharapova adv...

Champion Maria Sharapova showed no mercy at Wimbledon on Thursday, demolishing upstart Sesil Karatantcheva 6-0 6-1 in the second round.


In suffocating heat on Court One, the second seed initially struggled to keep her powerful game inside the white lines, but once she found her range the result was a foregone conclusion.



The 18-year-old Russian was taken to three deuces in an opening game littered with flashing winners and wayward missiles, but the occasion quickly engulfed 1...

QUESTION:
You could make an argument that your serve is the most improved part of your game over the last year. Can you go into some detail about when you really started working very seriously with your serve and how it's developed over the last 12 months.



MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Uhm, I don't think - I don't think my serve is as powerful as I would like it to get yet. But I think that's not just going out on the court and trying to serve big, bigger and bigger. I think...