TENNIS/WOMEN'S SINGLES:ALL OF that yakety yak about the older generation earlier in the week and they overlooked the young Danish third seed Caroline Wozniacki. The 19-year-old needed just 47 minutes to demolish Italian Tathiana Garbin in the first round at Wimbledon and took an hour and 17 minutes to book a place in the third round yesterday.

Wozniacki may have come into the tournament under the radar in terms of her profile on this side of tennis earth, but she is one of the teenagers at Wimbledon that does need watching and sits just below Venus and Serena Williams in the seeding committee’s esteem.

A US Open finalist last September, she yesterday sent home Taipei’s Chang Kai-chen 6-4, 6-3 in convincing fashion.

The Dane met Queen Elizabeth earlier in the day but Her Majesty did not stay to catch the game. The teenager won the Wimbledon girls’ singles title in 2006 and has competed in the senior event in each year since, improving her performance each time.

In 2007 she reached round two, 12 months later went out in the third round, and last year she made it through to the last 16, where she lost to German Sabine Lisicki. So a quarter-final or better this year is an obvious target.

A double-handed back hand that mirrors that of Serbia’s former champion, Monica Seles, and carries as much oomph as well as a serve that held up nicely, saw off a willing Chen, also just 19 years old.

“She wished me good luck in the tournament,” said Wozniacki of meeting the Queen before the match.

“I don’t remember (what she said) I was so nervous.”

A much higher profile but still in the process of bringing her game towards a second blossoming after two difficult years of injury to her shoulder, Maria Sharapova was also in a chastening mood with Ioana Olaru.

The 21-year-old Romanian had lost 11 of her last 12 matches coming into Wimbledon and could not have hoped to have turned over the re-emergent 23-year-old Russian.

Sharapova dropped serve in the second set but aggressively set about retrieving it immediately to run out a straight forward winner 6-1, 6-4.

“I knew that coming into this match last year I was on the plane the next day after I lost,” said Sharapova on making it through to the third round.

“So I really thought about it, especially towards the end of the match. I was really excited to get through.”

Her injuries have been fine but Sharapova also has a 23-year-old head on those problematic shoulders.

“I think it’s pretty tough to say you’re fit and you feel great. I mean we’re professional athletes,” she added.

“We don’t wake up in the morning and say everything feels perfect.”

Sharapova ultimately may have to face Serena Williams in the fourth round if she is to make a serious assault on the title.

The 2004 Wimbledon winner is looking good but hasn’t yet beaten a top-40 player all year.

However, she doesn’t have to do that to ensure a meeting with Williams.

Czech player Barbora Strycova, who came back from a nervous opening set 1-6, finally dumped the 12th seed Daniela Hantuchova by taking the final two sets 6-2, 6-4 to set up a meeting with Sharapova.

With Strycova ranked 68th in the world, a meeting between Sharapova and Williams seems to be in the offing.

Williams, who was a late starter last night after Nadal was surprisingly taken to five sets in his second round match with Robin Haase and did not start her match until after 7pm, went a break point down on her service in the first game against Russian Anna Chakvetadze.

Rather than becoming spooked by the effrontery, Williams saved the break point and cleaned Chakvetadze’s clock 6-0 in just 23 minutes.

Slowing down somewhat in the second set – by three minutes – Williams closed the deal before dusk taking the second set 6-1 in 26 minutes, an economical 49 minute meeting for the former champion, who has dropped just five games in her two matches so far.

Still the queen of Centre Court gave a royal wave to the thin crowd that stayed until after eight o’clock, Her Majesty having left some hours before.

Chakvetadze’s returns offered some glimpse of why she broke into the top five in the world in 2007, the same year she reached the US Open semi-finals. But she has since slumped to 118th and it quickly became apparent that her serve would not trouble Williams. The world number one’s returns proved too powerful in the second game, during which the Russian served two double faults.