Two rounds safely completed, four sets won and only eight games dropped – so far it is all going rather well for Maria Sharapova.
On the hottest day of The Championships so far, Sharapova spent a swift 65 minutes in dispatching Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-1. While most sensible people were heading for the nearest shady area, the world No.4 did not want to spend a moment longer than necessary in the sunshine and made mincemeat of her lesser ranked foe.
You may not have heard of Ms Hogenkamp but that is probably because she likes to fly under the radar. Unlike many of her contemporaries, she does not shout about her talents.
Not for her the claim to be a potential world No.1, not for her the prediction that she will win a Grand Slam trophy one day. No, Hogenkamp has smaller, humbler ambitions, namely to stay in the top 100 for many years.
For the moment her ambition remains just that – an ambition. Currently ranked No.123 in the general scheme of things, she has slipped down a spot from her career high of No.122 achieved back in May.
She has a way to go before she reaches her goal and maybe then she will be able to muscle her way into the roll of “notable names” from her home town of Doetinchem (at the moment, she is being kept out by such global stars as the DJ, Triple H, and the former Celtic footballer, Glenn Loovens).
No matter, Hogenkamp will leave SW19 with many a happy memory. To get to the second round, she barged her way through three rounds of the qualifying competition and pushed past Qiang Wang in the first round of the main draw – and all of it without dropping a set.
But then she ran into a woman with slightly bigger ambitions than her own. The former Wimbledon champion, the former world No.1 and the possessor of a career Grand Slam was never going to allow Hogenkamp to cause her any bother.
Had it not been for that pesky service action, the match could have been done and dusted even more quickly but Sharapova’s serve has never been the same since her shoulder problems started back in 2007. She missed nine months of competition between 2008 and 2009 as a result of the injury and then, when she thought it was all behind her, it resurfaced in 2013. She may be free of injury for the moment but the legacy lingers on. In her two matches to date, she has already served 15 double faults.
There has been many a player who has been overwhelmed by the prospect of playing a big name at Wimbledon and in tennis, the name does not come much bigger than Sharapova. But the quiet qualifier refused to let the occasion or the opposition get to her. Fair enough, she was broken first but, taking her courage and her returns in both hands, she broke straight back. That may or may not have been a wise move.
Sharapova, adopting that look that says "don’t make me hurt you'' and can strike fear into all but the very best in the business, did not let Hogenkamp win another game in that opening set. In fact, she ran away with all but one of the next nine games. It was simple, it was quick and it was brutal. And it was exactly what we have come to expect from Sharapova in the opening rounds at Wimbledon. It really is going rather well for her at the moment.
