Sharapova is unfazed by failure of top stars

Sharapova, who moved into Round 3, is unfazed by failure of top stars

Maria Sharapova has seen her title rivals drop around her at the French Open but she is not about to start counting her chickens.

Maria Sharapova returns to Ayumi Morita in French Open yesterday. Pic/AFP

The first week at Roland Garros has already seen one of the biggest upsets in tennis, Serena Williams losing to Virginie Razzano in round one, while third seed Agnieszka Radwanska was easily beaten by Svetlana Kuznetsova yesterday.

Sharapova had been seeded to meet Williams in the quarter-finals, but she is expecting many tough hurdles to be placed in her way if she is to lift the French Open title for the first time.

Sharapova eased into the third round yesterday with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Ayumi Morita in a match that was postponed on Thursday because of John Isner’s marathon loss to Paul-Henri Mathieu.

The second seed and title favourite said: “It’s tough to be in the first round of a tournament and think, this person lost, someone that you could face in the quarter-final of a tournament. I think that’s just a really wrong way to look at things.

“If you’re thinking like that, then you’re at a big disadvantage, because, no matter who you play, if you get to the quarter-finals you have to play at a high level. You can’t worry about if it’s Serena or somebody else across the net. You have to beat them.
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Women’s results
>> Maria Sharapova bt Ayumi Morita 6-1, 6-1
>> Samantha Stosur bt Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-3
>> Svetlana Kuznetsova btu00a0A Radwanska 6-1, 6-2
>> Sara Errani bt Ana Ivanovic 1-6, 7-5, 6-3
>> Dominika Cibulkova bt Maria Jose Martinez 6-2, 6-1
>> Sloane Stephens bt Mathilde Johansson 6-3, 6-2u00a0

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