De Brito buries Sharapova on Graveyard of seeds

Michelle Larcher de Brito, the 21 year old Portuguese qualifier ranked 131, beat the world number 3 and 2004 Champion Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of Wimbledon on Court two, the infamous Graveyard of seeds.

Not only did de Brito outgrunt Sharapova, she outplayed her as well. De Brito jumped out to a 4-1 first set lead striking the ball with a ferocity of which Maria would have been proud. De Brito muscled the ball with all the power her 5 ft 5 inch frame could muster, and more. And, smartly, she moved the ball from side to side, keeping the ball away from Maria, getting her on the stretch and forcing her into error. De Brito never lapsed from her plan, breaking Sharapova to love at 4-3 before serving out the first set to take it 6-3.

In the second set, de Brito did not let up. She broke Maria at 1-1, the Russian double-faulting on break point. De Brito continued to move Maria side to side until she got the error or found the open court. Trailing 3-4, Maria took an injury time-out but it did not deter the young Portuguese who survived being broke point down, helped somewhat by Maria’s netting the return.

Maria being Maria, she kept on going for her shots, and at times it paid off as she fought off four match points. On the fifth match point though Maria was once more unable to get to the ball pounded away from her, hitting a forehand error on the run, and de Brito had a famous win.

In victory, de Brito finally fulfilled somewhat on the promise she had shown back in 2009 when her ranking reached 76 and she reached the last 32 of the French Open as a 16 year old in a game desperate for young stars. Since then she has struggled with her game and languished on the ITF circuit and in the qualifiers of the WTA. This win comes on the back of years of struggling and perseverance and mirrored the early glory days of Sharapova herself in its intensity and ferocious driving. For Maria, who complained after slipping three times and told the Umpire the court was dangerous, it was yet another bad loss on a surface on which she has had little success since her victory in 2004 other than her 2011 runner up placing.

How she will recover remains to be seen while how de Brito moves on, in a women’s tournament marked by the rise of the new era of WTA ‘youngsters’ aged 19-22, will be eagerly awaited.