Former wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova was put out of Wimbledon today, the victim of a stunning straight-sets upset by 154th-ranked Alla Kudryavtseva in the second round.

Maria, the 2004 champion, lost 6-2, 6-4 to her fellow Russian amid a wave of double faults and ugly unforced errors. It was the third-seeded Sharapova’s earliest exit from a Grand Slam event since her first full season on the circuit in 2003. Since her breakthrough at Wimbledon in 2004, Sharapova has won the 2006 U.S. Open and 2008 Australian Open.

Kudryavtseva, 20, has never won a WTA Tour title. She lost in the first round at Wimbledon to eventual champion Venus Williams last year. She has been ranked as high as No. 59 last year. “She had nothing to lose,” Maria said. “She went for her shots. I can’t be really happy about anything today.”

Kudryavtseva even rubbed it in by trashing the fashion icon’s widely publicized Wimbledon ensemble of tuxedo-style blouse & shorts. “I don’t like her outfit,” said Kudryavtseva, who was born in Moscow but, like Sharapova, now lives in Florida. “It was one of the motivations to beat her.”

Some pictures of Maria Sharapova as she starts her campaign at Wimbledon 2008 to win another grand slam title.

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Maria Sharapova stumbled again at the French Open losing the final four games and 10 of the last 12 points.

The French Open is the only Grand Slam title Maria is yet to win. Top-ranked Sharapova blew a big lead and lost to fellow Russian Dinara Safina in the fourth round on Monday, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2.

Sharapova won five consecutive games in the second set to go ahead 5-2, and held a match point serving at 5-3. As Safina’s comeback gained momentum, Sharapova was two points from victory three times, but she unraveled down the stretch and lost the final four games.

“It was all in her hands,” Safina said. “Then suddenly it changed.” Safina, the younger sister of two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin, received a congratulatory text from her brother and said she hopes to join him as the winner of a major title.

“A dream of all our family,” she said. “Once we do this, we can put the racket on the wall and say we did everything we could.” Safina, who also eliminated Maria in the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2006 and went on to the quarterfinals, next plays No. 7 Elena Dementieva.

Top seed Maria Sharapova reached the last 16 of the French Open on Saturday 31st May by defeating Karin Knapp of Italy 7-6 (7/4), 6-0.

Similar to her first two round matches, it was painful progress for Maria whose power game and flat-hitting is ill-suited to the rigours of claycourt tennis.

Knapp, who reached her first WTA final in Antwerp in February, stayed the course in the first set until 3-3 before Sharapova grabbed the first break of the match. Maria was misfiring on her own serve and she allowed Knapp to level the set at 5-5 and then force a tie-break. Knapp had an early mini-break in that to lead 2-1 but four points in a row from Sharapova turned the tables and she was relieved to win it 7/4 smacking a crosscourt backhand winner on set point.

Sharapova won a marathon second game of the second set with another backhand winner to break serve and jump out into a 3-0 lead that she never looked like letting slip. But she will have to add more consistency to her game before going up against compatriot Dinara Safina with a quarter-final place at stake. The pair have met five times with Sharapova winning three.