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Kudryavtseva sends Sharapova packing

Nirmal Shekar

London: It would have been perfectly understandable if Alla Kudryavtseva had offered to carry her opponent’s kitbag from the dressing room to the court in the All England Lawn Tennis Club on Thursday.

Or, perhaps, star-struck, sought her autograph.

Such is the gap between Alla What’s-her-name and the game’s best-known diva, Maria Sharapova.

But Kudryavtseva, being a Dostoevsky fan, considered neither of those submissive gestures. Instead, she went out and hammered the 2004 champion and second seed 6-2, 6-4 in just 84 minutes to leave a crater-like hole in the women’s draw.

On the Richter Scale of tennis quakes, this must rank right up there with anything witnessed in Wimbledon in recent years.

Kudryavtseva is 20-years old and her career earnings — just over $350,000 — is the sort of small change that Sharapova is used to bagging in a fortnight or two.

Two days ago, Kudryavtseva won her first main draw match in Wimbledon while her megastar opponent was a champion here at the age of 17. Sharapova is world ranked No.2 and Kudryavtseva is 152 places behind her.

Great leveller

If the names were somehow interchanged in the scoreline, it would have been a perfectly understandable result. Yet, in reality, the match once again showed us what a great leveller sport is.

Kudryavtseva had come within a point of beating Venus Williams in the first round here last year. She had lost that chance. On Thursday, there was no stopping her.

Serving well, hitting blistering winners off both flanks and never allowing Sharapova to turn things around, the 20-year-old who is based in Miami did everything right.

“Last year I was so close to beating Venus. I missed it once. Didn’t want to miss it again,” said Kudryavtseva.

After being outplayed in the first set, Sharapova opened up a 2-0 lead in the second but only to lose the next four games.

Although the second seed fought her way to 4-4, a double fault at deuce in the 10th game gave Kudryavtseva her first matchpoint and she closed out the match with a crosscourt forehand winner.

“Guess it wasn’t my day. She did everything better than me,” said Sharapova.

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