Fourth seed Maria Sharapova on Monday prevented Great Britain's Johanna Konta from repeating her Eastbourne heroics as she defeated the latter in straight sets on the opening day of the Wimbledon Championships.
The former Wimbledon champion eased into the second round of the women's singles with a straight 6-2, 6-2 victory over Konta on the Centre court.
The Russian showed great quality and experience and it turned out to be too much for the British number two on her Centre court debut.
Delighted with the victory, Sharapova said that the first match of Wimbledon was never easy, especially against Konta, who was a crowd favourite after a great week, the BBC reported.
The Russain was not at her fluent best as she produced seven double faults, while Konta set up five break points during the match.
But she only managed to take one of those opportunities before Sharapova claimed victory in a match that lasted for one hour and 22 minutes.