Federer saunters through, Maria falls

By Martyn Herman

LONDON (Reuters) - Roger Federer sauntered through to the third round at Wimbledon in glorious sunshine on Wednesday while another former champion, Maria Sharapova, was heading for the airport after a second round defeat.

Referring to Federer as a former holder of the grasscourt grand slam title he won five years in a row still takes some getting used to and his form in a 6-2 6-2 6-4 win over Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez suggests he will soon reclaim his throne.

The Swiss was at his relaxed, free-flowing best as he reduced Garcia-Lopez to the role of ball boy for much of an embarrassingly one-sided contest that was over all too quickly for the 15,000 spectators on a sweltering Centre Court.

Unusually the 27-year-old, who lost his crown to Rafael Nadal in one of the best finals ever seen at Wimbledon, was not watched by his most loyal supporter, pregnant wife Mirka, but he played down suggestions that a new Federer was imminent.

"She's just not feeling 100 percent," he said. "We decided it's better if she takes it easy instead of sitting in the sun and maybe feeling worse the next day.

Earlier Sharapova, on the court where she made her name in 2004 by beating Serena Williams to win Wimbledon, looked a pale shadow of the player who once looked set to dominate the game.

Bedevilled by shoulder problems since losing in the second round here last year, the 24th seed ran into inspired Argentine Gisela Dulko, losing 6-2 3-6 6-4 to a player she had dropped just three games against in their two previous clashes.

Sharapova lost the opening set in 35 minutes and despite some typically tenacious resistance to win the second from 0-3 the booming weapons that used to blast the Russian to safety in such situations failed to function at the crunch.