Maria Sharapova needed only 51 minutes to overwhelm Australian Casey Dellacqua in the second round of the US Open yesterday, serving notice that she is focused, in form and determined to defend her title.
The second-seeded Sharapova blasted 30 winners while yielding only two to her opponent duringa 6-1, 6-0 rout under the lights at Flushing Meadows' Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"I'm just trying to play solid from the first point until the end," said Sharapova, one of 10 Russian women in the third round. "I don't want to give my opponents any chances. I just got to do my job and get off the court."
On the men's side, fifth seed Andy Roddick had a second-round victory over Argentine Jose Acasuso, who retired with a knee injury at the end of the third set.
Roddick, the 2003 champion, said he was just glad to advance.
"It's not the way you want to get through but at the beginning of the day all you want to do is get through to the third round," admitted the American, who was leading 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 when Acasuso left the court.
Other winners included fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, number six American James Blake, ninth seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and Britain's number 19 Andy Murray.
Richard Gasquet was the first casualty of the day when the French 13th seed pulled out with a fever.
The withdrawal handed American wildcard Donald Young a walkover into the third round.
On the women's side, 16th seed Martina Hingis, who won the tournament a decade ago, sliced, lobbed and chipped her way to a 6-2, 7-5 win over Pauline Parmentier of France and fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova employed power tennis in a 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 victory over Camille Pin.
Sharapova's competition in the tournament will certainly get stronger but the Russian was particularly sharp against a bewildered Dellacqua.
"I think she'll most definitely go all the way," the 90th-ranked Dellacqua said, still shellshocked from Sharapova's driving groundstrokes.
Sharapova landed 78 per cent of her first serves and won 52 of the match's 75 points. She has now lost two games in two matches.
"The night matches are always a little bit of a bigger motivation factor," said Sharapova.
"You're treated as entertainers and you go on court and you feel like you have to perform well."
