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It's Child's Play: Sharapova Wins

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By JOHN PYE, The Associated Press

Published: January 17, 2008

MELBOURNE, Australia - Maria Sharapova looked up and spotted a 7-month-old kid staring her down.

"I thought I saw her little kid giving me dirty looks," Sharapova said.

The boy, Jagger, was courtside. His mom, Lindsay Davenport, winner of three Grand Slam titles and with a 19-1 record since returning to the tour, was across the net.

Sharapova beat Davenport 6-1, 6-3 Wednesday night to move into the third round of the Australian Open against a fellow Russian, Elena Vesnina.

"Tell you the truth, I approached it like it's a final," said Sharapova, straying from her 'one-match-at-a-time' mantra. "Ever since I took a peek at the draw and saw that Lindsay was second round."

Davenport was only five tournaments into a comeback after giving birth to Jagger in June. Still, Sharapova was preparing for a matchup worthy of the second week of a major.

"You probably don't get to see too many second rounds where you see two Grand Slams champions, former No. 1s playing against each other," she said. "The buildup to the match, the excitement, the showtime - I love that. As an athlete, that's what you play for."

No. 3 Jelena Jankovic, who had to save three match points in a 22-game third set in the first round, had a routine 6-2, 7-5 win against Edina Gallovits in the second round.

Serena Williams improved her record to 25-1 in her five most recent trips to Melbourne Park with a 6-3, 6-1 win over China's Yuan Meng.

Today, Roger Federer, who had 53 winners and 18 unforced errors and ran off the last 10 games of a 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 win against Fabrice Santoro to advance to the third round.

Down a break of serve in the second set, eighth-ranked Venus Williams rallied to get back to 4-4 and won the last two games for a 7-5, 6-4 victory against Camille Pin.

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