 Sharapova is the reigning champion at Edgbaston |
Maria Sharapova put in an unconvincing performance to move into the third round of the DFS Classic at Edgbaston. The defending champion beat American qualifier Ahsha Rolle 6-4 6-2 but struggled to find her rhythm against a player ranked 139 places below her.
Sharapova managed to close out the first set at 6-4, and then broke again in the first game of the second.
Rolle was clearly troubled by an injury to her right knee that was heavily strapped, and was always struggling.
In other second-round matches, Britain's Sarah Borwell made a fight of it in the second set before losing 6-2 7-6 (7-5) to American Jamea Jackson.
Japanese fifth seed Ai Sugiyama eased past Jarmila Gajdosova (Slovakia) 6-2 6-3.
Russian seventh seed Anna Chakvetadze also had few problems against Emmanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland, winning 6-4 6-4.
But Indian 14th seed Sania Mirza had another tough match, eventually prevailing against America's Shenay Perry 7-5 6-7 6-3.
In the first round, which was completed on Wednesday, Eleni Daniilidou of Greece was rarely troubled by Britain's Anne Keothavong in a 6-3 6-0 win.
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