Maria Sharapova falls at first hurdle on Wimbledon return

Maria Sharapova’s first match at Wimbledon 2018 since 2015 ended in a brutal defeat as Vitalia Diatchenko came through a three-hour epic.

A drugs ban and thigh injury had kept the 2004 champion away from the All England Club but Sharapova’s return resulted in her first defeat in the opening match at Wimbledon of her career.

Sharapova had been within a game of victory late in the second set but was unable to hold firm as Diatchenko found her range in a contest lacking in quality but full of twists and turns.

Neither player was able to find their range in service games early on, six of the first eight ending in breaks. Four double-faults from Diatchenko in those early games hardly aided her cause, though Sharapova was little better with three of her own.

Diatchenko could not fix her double fault problems and another slipped in at the most inopportune of moments, handing Sharapova a mini-break with the opening point of the first set tie-break, which the 2004 champion would go on to win with a powerful ace.

Diatchenko had already required treatment on what appeared to be an injury to her left calf, first calling for a medical timeout at the end of the seventh game and then departing at the end of the first set. However her movement did not seem unduly weakened and her return to court was followed by a brilliant backhand winner.

Sharapova swiftly broke in the second game of the second set before coming through a sustained assault on her serve with typical indefatigability, denying Diatchenko three break points as she kept simply putting the ball back into play.

From there Sharapova ought to have been able to sustain her advantage, the quality of her display gradually improving until a peerless lob took her within a game of the finish line. It was not quite that simple though, with Diatchenko battling to break back in the ninth game as another double fault had a decisive impact.

Diatchenko took the tiebreak 7-3 and Sharapova was back to square one, with both players trading breaks throughout the set.

Sharapova looked on course for victory when she broke for 4-3 but Diatchenko immediately responded, ensuring the pressure was on the No.24 seed.

For once Sharapova could not live with that and, at match point, double-faulted for the 10th time in the match, surely the most appropriate of endings.