Olympic Tennis - Maria Sharapova vs. Laura Robson (15:00 BST)

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by Crunch Sports Staff

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Maria Sharapova (credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Maria Sharapova will have the Centre Court crowd against her when she takes on British teenager Laura Robson this afternoon in the second round of the women's singles at the London 2012 Olympic Games (15:00 BST start).

From looking at the rankings and career records of these two, it would appear that we're in for a complete mismatch at Wimbledon later today, but Robson has shown in the past that she's certainly capable of giving Sharapova a match on grass. They played at Wimbledon last year and Robson had her chances in the opening set before going down 7-6 6-3.

Sharapova sent out a warning message to the rest of the women's draw on Sunday with an emphatic 6-2 6-0 win over Shahar Peer in just over an hour, smashing 22 winners past the Israeli.

"This was a big opportunity for both of us and I wanted to make the best of it," the Russian said afterwards.

"The roof being closed meant it was a little humid inside, so the conditions changed a little bit from what we were practicing in the last week, but it was nice to get a win in my first Olympic match.

"Shahar is capable of playing really, really good tennis. I had a tough match against her in Miami a few months ago, so I knew she could be tricky. She's a good fighter and gets a lot of balls back, so you have to be ready for that."

Robson also enjoyed an impressive first round win, seeing off world No. 23 Lucie Safarova 7-6 6-4. Her movement and defence are much improved from when she last played Sharapova and she still possesses that big lefty serve and that ability to dominate from the back of the court.

Expect her to once again give the Russian a much stiffer test than many would predict.

Prediction: Sharapova in three.

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