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Maria Sharapova of Russia, former World No. 1 and 2004 Wimbledon champion, has easily gained the 3rd round at Wimbledon 2010.

Maria seems to be on cruise control, downing countrywoman, Anastasia Pivovarova 6-1, 6-0, and Raluca Olaru of Romania, 6-1, 6-4.

At this point, Maria seems to have come back quite well from last year’s shoulder injury. She will face Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova of the Czech Republic in round three. Her quarter of the draw sets up a potential match against current World No. 1 Serena Williams of the USA in round four.

Russian tennis cutie pie, Anna Chakvetadze, turns 22 today. She was born March 5, 1987 in Moscow, Russia where she still resides.

Chakvetadze is pictured here during her win over No. 130 ranked Zi Yan of China, 6-1 6-2, which helped lead Russia over China in the first round of the 2009 Fed Cup.

Chakvetadze is currently ranked No. 24 on the WTA Tour. Her career-high singles ranking has been No. 5 on September 10, 2007. That was the year she did her best in the Grand Slams, reaching the Quarterfinals of the Australian Open and Roland Garros, and the Semifinals of the US Open. She has never won a Grand Slam.

Russian tennis cutie pie, Anna Chakvetadze, is out of the WTA Fortis Championships held Oct. 20-26, 2008 in Luxembourg. She was defeated by No. 42 ranked Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4.

Anna Chakvetadze, ranked No. 12, won a close first round match against No. 83 ranked Mathilde Johansson of Sweden, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4). But she never really got into the match in her 2nd round.

Chakvetadze has won only two matches in her last six tournaments. Time to turn it around!

It was a tough day for 12th ranked Russian tennis cutie pie, Anna Chakvetadze as she lost in the first round of the 2008 WTA Zurich Open being played in Zurich, Switzerland Oct. 13-19.

Chakvetadze, the 7th seed in the tournament, started off strong against 66th ranked Monica Niculescu of Romania. However, after winning the 1st set 6-3, Chakvetadze could only manage five games in the last two sets, losing them 3-6, 2-6.

Russian tennis cutie pie, Anna Chakvetadze, lost in the second round of the 2008 WTA Tour China Open being played in Beijing, China Sept 22-28. Her tennis didn’t look as good in her match as she does in this photo, where she seems to be saying, “How dare you beat me! Anyone else want to try?”

Chakvetadze, seeded 8th in the tournament, won her first match against 42nd ranked Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 7-5. Then she lost in the next round in straight sets to 20th ranked unseeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.3-6, 2-6.

Russian tennis cutie pie, Anna Chakvetadze, returns a shot here to Ekaterina Makarova, also of Russia, at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, Monday, Aug. 25, 2008. Makarova won the match 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Anna Chakvetadze was seeded 10th in the tournament and seemed to be coasting to victory while winning the opening set 6-1. But then she wilted under the pressure of solid groundstrokes from Makarova and became one of the upset statistics.

What a disappointing finish for Anna after reaching the Semifinals here last year. Her only previous opening round defeat was at Wimbledon in 2005.

Tennis cutie pie, Anna Chakvetadze, of Russia is shown here in her Quarterfinal match of the 2008 WTA Tour Pilot Pen tennis tournament at New Haven, Connecticut, USA. She made a good run, losing out in the Final match against Caroline Wozniacki.

Anna Chakvetadze was the # 1 seed in the tournament. She had a 1st round bye, then defeated 44th ranked Casey Dellacqua of Australia 6-4, 6-4 in the 2nd round to move to the Quarterfinals. In the Quarterfinals she faced Romanian, Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea, winning in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.

Cutie pie, Anna Chakvetadze, from Russia was defeated in the 2nd round of the 2008 WTA Rogers Cup being played in Montreal, Canada July 28-Aug. 3.

Ninth ranked, Anna had a BYE in the 1st round. She then won her 2nd round match 6-2, 7-5 against 79th ranked Jill Craybas of the USA. Then she lost a hard fought 3-set match 6-4, 5-7, 6-7(4-7) to 15th ranked Marian Bartoli of France.

It is disappointing losing a close match like that, knowing that just a couple of points could have changed the outcome. But this should make her match-tough for her next tournament.

Cutie pie, Anna Chakvetadze of Russia was beaten in the 3rd round of the 2008 WTA East West Bank Classic being played in Los Angeles, California, USA July 21-27.

Anna was the 3rd seed in this tournament. She had a 1st round BYE, then played 58th ranked Marta Domachowska of Poland. Anna easily won the match in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1.

Anna’s 3rd round opponent was 30th ranked Sybille Bammer of Austria. It was a close, tough match with Anna coming out on the losing end. Anna won the first set 4-6. She then fought back to win the 2nd set 7-5. The 3rd set didn’t go as well and she ended up losing 2-6.

One of our Russian cutie pies, Anna Chakvetadze, suffered a loss in the Quarterfinals of the 2008 WTA Tour Bank of the West Classic Tennis Tournament in Stanford, California, USA.

Anna, the 2nd seed, lost to 6th seed Marion Bartoli of France in straight sets, 3-6, 4-6.

Anna had a 1st round BYE, won her 2nd round match against Shahar Peer, which set up the 3rd round match against Bartoli in the Quarterfinals. So she only played two matches in this tournament. This is a disappointing loss for Anna, and not much of a warm up for the U.S. Open in August. Hopefully she can pick up her game by then.