Sharapova to face Lisicki

Plenty of seeds have already been dismissed in the women's draw and there were no signs that the top contender Maria Sharapova was going to be ruffled by her Taiwanese opponent, Hsieh Su-wei, the world number 63.

The only ruffling which could be seen was that of her skirt and hair as the gusty wind made her service game a tricky operation.

Hsieh became the first Taiwanese woman to reach the third round at Wimbledon in the Open area after beating Stephanie Foretz Gacon in the previous round.

She also had to recover from going a break down in the second set but corrected that problem quickly to make the fourth round 6-1 6-4.

The top seed's reward for a typically gritty display is a last 16 meeting with German 15th seed Lisicki in a repeat of last year's semi-final clash which the Russian won in straight sets.

Sharapova's grunting or shrieking could become a major feature of that match for Lisicki has already complained at this year's Championships, about the noise level of a previous opponent, Bojana Jovanovski.

Her complaint led the umpire to request her to desist which she did with no detriment to her play!

 "Well, I haven't been in that situation," said Sharapova when asked what she would do if similarly instructed to cut down on the squawking. "But if I am, I'll tell you about it after."

There is every chance that Lisicki will raise the issue for the volume of Sharapova's emanations are of a much higher level and pitch than that provided by the Serb and there is no doubt that the shrieking is meant to intimidate, for its volume does increase when the Russian is in trouble.

Also on view following Sharapova's match was Kim Clihsters playing her last ever Wimbledon before retirement.

Playing the 2010 losing finalist Vera Zvonareva, she won an extraordinary first set, in which five successive services games were dropped, 6-3. However midway through the second, Zvonareva, clearly in distress, sought a medical time out. She left the court accompanied by medics, returning to a sympathetic ovation after ten minutes. But, despite attempting to continue, she was obliged, by a viral breathing problem, to give up after one more game, 6-3 4-3.