Sharapova upset by Dulko at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Growing desperate in the final game, Maria Sharapova scrambled to hit one shot left-handed. Twice she challenged calls but lost. Then she lost the match as well.

Sharapova won seven consecutive games during one stretch but let a late lead slip away Wednesday and was beaten by Gisela Dulko, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the second round at Wimbledon.

Sharapova saved four match points in a wild, 14-point final game. But on the fifth she pushed an easy forehand long, and she was out of the tournament after two rounds for the second year in a row.

The 2004 champion was playing in her fourth event since rejoining the tour last month following shoulder surgery in October. She's ranked 60th but was seeded 24th because of past success at the All England Club.

Dulko, ranked 45th, matched her best showing at Wimbledon by reaching the third round. She had won a total of only three games in two previous matches against Sharapova, but the Argentine repeatedly won points by hitting drop shots, while Sharapova struggled with her serve and forehand.

The day's first match on Centre Court was played in warm sunshine, and and the new roof remained open for a third consecutive day.

Marat Safin's final match at Wimbledon took place on cozy Court 18, tucked in a corner of the All England Club, closer to the exit than to the court where trophies are handed out.

That was appropriate, because Safin always seemed to have one foot out the door at Wimbledon. Playing his final year on the tour, the mercurial Russian lost in the first round Tuesday to American Jesse Levine, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Safin smiled when asked how he felt to be done at Wimbledon.

"Relieved," he said.

The two-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1 never really took to grass, although he came to accept it as a brief, necessary annoyance at the start of each summer.

His best Wimbledon run came last year, when he reached the semifinals before losing to Roger Federer. But he won only 16 of 26 matches at the All England Club, and could recall only two where he played well — against Goran Ivanisevic in a loss in 2001, and in a win over Novak Djokovic last year.

"That's it," he said. "Not much."

So while Levine's victory was an upset, it wasn't really a surprise — not to Safin, at least.