Sharapova Born to Be a Big Noise in the Future

When you are born can be more important than where you are born. Maria Sharapova was born in Siberia in 1987 and that could prove to be a fine year if your aim is to be the number one women's tennis player in the world. By the time Sharapova is 20, both the Williams sisters will have probably moved on to other things and there will be a vacuum to be filled.

Yesterday, on Court 1, the Russian took the first steps towards to fulfilling that dream. A leggy six-footer, if that's not a tautology, she defeated Jelena Dokic relatively comfortably. She ended the match with an ace, dropped her racket to the ground, perhaps in surprise, looked up at her parents, said a little prayer, opened her arms to the crowd and then blew kisses to all and sundry. If she was practising her reaction should she win the tournament, then such preparation may not be in vain because she showed sufficient class and mental and physical strength to suggest she could be a champion.

Dokic was born in Belgrade in 1983. In a sense, this was doubly unfortunate. She is consigned to having to compete against both the Williams sisters and, since emigrating to Australia in 1994, has chopped and changed nationality more often than other players tinker with their forehand.

When she was Sharapova's age, Dokic qualified for Wimbledon, knocked out Martina Hingis and went on to the quarter-finals. Since then, Papa Dokic has made as many headlines as his daughter. The photograph of father, mother and little brother sitting glumly watching the improbable feats achieved by Jelena lives in the memory. They and she seem to have been hounded ever since. It is hard to believe she is only 20.

The match opened prophetically for Dokic. She hit her first serve into the middle of the net and then her second. She double-faulted again and lost her serve. Sharapova held hers without any particular problems and found herself two games ahead without the hint of a grunt.

Much has been made of Sharapova's grunting or shrieking and the old joke about not wanting to be in the next-door room on her honeymoon has been trotted out. An ungallant and rather strange gag, because we have all been in hotels when nothing is on the telly and any signs of life are welcome. Yesterday, she was no louder than Dokic, making an impact on the shriek-o-meter only when she was really pumped up and serving for the match. And who cares? As she said when repeatedly questioned on the subject: 'But you know, my mouth doesn't do anything, doesn't control the way I play. It's just a mouth.'

Sharapova continued to hold her advantage. She has a strong serve, a big forehand, a strong, flat backhand and might - it was impossible to tell because she never made it to the net - have a decent volley.

Dokic seemed out of sorts. Not really improving on the shaky form she had shown against Elena Baltacha in the first round, when she almost lost to a Brit - difficult one to live down, wherever you are in the world. Afterwards she regretted missed opportunities and said: 'Mentally I did not play the bigger points better.'

When she had break points, she missed them and, with an ace down the middle and a net-skimming forehand down the line, Sharapova closed out the first set 6-4.

The second set started in the same manner as the first, with Dokic double-faulting. Sharapova, in contrast, continued to serve impressively with a classic action - rock back, rock forward, bang. Only once was her service game under pressure, during the second game of the second set, but she survived five deuces. And at no stage did she look as if she would not win in straight sets.

Perhaps this contributed to the rather flat atmosphere, or perhaps the crowds have become more placid since the Rusedski incident. Or perhaps Wimbledon crowds are doomed for ever to be docile.

After her 6-4, 6-4 victory, the Americans at the press conference kept trying to claim Sharapova because she lives in Florida. But she resists such inducements: 'I'm really Russian inside of me. I have Russian blood all the way.' During the Olympics, when its Russia versus the US, she 'wants Russia to win so bad'.

Asked if she had watched Dokic beat Hingis in 1999, Sharapova said: 'I was sleeping at the time.' And when a tortured question about it being the fiftieth anniversary of Mo Connolly winning Wimbledon wound up with, 'do you know anything about her?' she replied, simply, 'no'.

'I'm 16 and I'm in the fourth round of Wimbledon. How odd is that?' she said. If she continues playing like this she could go much farther, perhaps even beating Justine Henin-Hardenne in the quarter-finals. Not bad for a wild-card entry. In the past, these have been presented to big names such as Miss V S Humphreys-Davies (GB), Miss A M H Wainwright (GB) and Miss A Simpkin (GB). This time one has been given to a real contender.