TENNIS WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPSIT WAS one of those matches where the crowd in Court One, having watched Rafael Nadal in the first match, thought briefly about their interest in Maria Sharapova's meeting with a player they had never heard of and then went off to have some Pims.

By the time the Russian diva's wailing could be heard in corporate hospitality, they had started trickling back until the final few agonising games for the 2004 Wimbledon champion were witnessed by a full stadium.

The smell of blood has always attracted the crowd and yesterday's tumbling out of the tournament by the 50 to one-on former champion to Alla Kudryavtseva had a touch of the Coliseum about it.

The more the third seed stared in disbelief as another forehand went long or the ball kicked queerly off the brown grass on the baseline, the more they cheered the 154th-ranked stranger at the other end of the net.

But Sharapova has always said she has no plan B and if she goes out of a tournament, she will go out swinging.

As a three-time Grand Slam winner, it has served her well but yesterday's 6-2, 6-4, 84 minutes of trauma might shake her into finding a new philosophy before the US Open.

Kudryavtseva is an avid reader who enjoys Fydor Dostoevsky.

Be sure Sharapova has departed thinking Crime and Punishment and Idiot for her chronic lapses on a surface she adores.

Kudryavtseva, who father was a world champion Greco-Roman Russian wrestler of the 1980s, had enough fight to control the points, control the games and hold it together even under pressure in the third set, until Sharapova's frustration finally became her own undoing.

Not only was she ranked well outside the top 100 but of the Russian players in the tournament she was the 22nd best and had played just once before at Wimbledon, last year when she lost to Venus Williams in the first round.

The year before she fell in the qualifying event in Roehampton.

But the Williams defeat ensured she would not make the same mistake against Sharapova and go into the match tentatively.

Playing percentage tennis last year was harshly punished and Kudryavtseva vowed not to make the same mistake.

"Today I just went for my shots. The match against Venus I was so close to winning but played a little too passive," she said.

"For sure this is the biggest win of my career."

A lugubrious Sharapova tried to be gracious but her deflation barely concealed that she was simmering and had no real explanation for what happened.

"She did everything better than me," she said dolefully.

"She played much better. She hit the ball harder. She served and returned better. Obviously she had nothing to lose. She went for her shots. I was just pretty tentative."

But there was also a strain of defiance in her voice.

"I still have the desire. Even 30 minutes after the match, to go back on court and to get better, 'cause that's the only thing that's gonna get me to hold that plate again."

Sharapova's ills began in the sixth game, where she double faulted three times to hand Kudryavtseva a service game. From there the younger of the two Russians, Kudryavtseva, served for 5-1 then broke serve again for the set as Sharapova failed to find any control.

"When she double-faulted three times I knew that she was not at her best," said Kudryavtseva. "I was in great shape and she's not playing her best tennis at the moment."

It was far from terminal for Sharapova at that point and the thought was she could readjust and find some degree of consistency that could just take her safely through.

Immediately Kudryavtseva dropped serve in the first game of the second set and there was a glimmer.

When that was handed back straight away and Kudryavtseva took the next four games, the crowd became involved, cheering the underdog.

To perfectly bookend the poor performance, the world number two then double-faulted at deuce on her serve to offer her opponent match point at 4-5.

She then missed her first serve with Kudryavtseva crushing a cross court forehand for the match. The result has opened up the bottom half of the draw, where both title holder Venus Williams and second seed Jelena Jankovic came through yesterday.

Williams withstood the second wave of the "Plucky Brits" on Centre Court. Having faced a feisty first set from Naomi Cavaday in the previous round, the defending champion was also under enthusiastic first-set fire from the highest ranked of the local players, Anne Keothavong.

The 92nd-ranked player qualified for the main draw on merit, becoming the first British player to qualify for a Grand Slam since 1999, when Sam Smith qualified for the US Open.

Keothavong had also used a male player, Scott Sears, to hit with in practice in preparation for the weight of the shots she was going to have to face from the seventh seed.

But like Cavaday, the challenge followed a familiar pattern and after a 69-minute first set in which Keothavong broke Williams's serve once and earned eight break points in another game, she lost it 7-5.

It was a spirited stab by the 24-year-old at upsetting Williams but the fight evaporated and he second set then unravelled.

The American, using her experience and greater strength, put her racquet on the ball more sweetly in the second set and took just 35 minutes to wrap up the match.