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ROME -- With her eye on the No. 1 ranking, Maria Sharapova overpowered Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-4, 6-2 Tuesday in a second-round match at the Italian Open on a wet and windy day.
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Fifth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, the U.S. Open champion, had a far rougher time, losing 6-2, 6-4 to Argentina's Paola Suarez. Suarez, slowed by injuries this season, reached the semifinals of last year's French Open.
The top-seeded Sharapova, who had a first-round bye, can overtake Lindsay Davenport for the top spot if she wins this $1.3 million clay-court tuneup for the French, which starts May 23. Davenport is not playing in Rome.
Sharapova, the Wimbledon champion, capitalized on her big forehand and attacking game against her 42nd-ranked opponent. The Russian connected with a swinging forehand volley winner on her first match point.
Both players struggled to hold serve, with Sharapova making seven breaks to Medina Garrigues' four.
"I don't think I played great tennis. I was making too many errors at the beginning of the match," Sharapova said. "As the match went on, I was feeling a little bit better with my strokes."
"It's the first match," she added. "It's never going to be easy to play a Spaniard that runs and gets everything back. So it's good to get the first one out of the way and move on."
Sharapova had a chance to take over the top ranking with a title at last week's German Open but lost to eventual champion Justine Henin-Hardenne in the quarterfinals.
In six career clay-court tournaments, Sharapova has reached only two quarterfinals - in Berlin last week and at last year's French Open.
If she reaches No. 1 in the coming weeks, Sharapova - who turned 18 last month -- would become the fourth-youngest woman to do so since computer rankings came into use in 1975. Martina Hingis, Monica Seles and Tracy Austin were 17 when they first became the top player while Steffi Graf was 18 years, 2 months.
Kuznetsova, a Russian coming off a quarterfinal appearance in Berlin and a runner-up finish in Poland a week earlier, dropped to 16-8 this season. Suarez recorded only her second win, the other coming Monday in the first round against Karolina Sprem.
Suarez began the year with a leg injury. She made her season debut in February, losing in the opening round of four straight tournaments. She withdrew from three more events with a neck sprain before returning this week.
"I thought it would be a more difficult match," Suarez said. "This is my first tournament on clay this season. I just took advantage of all her errors."
In two first-round upsets, Anna Smashnova of Israel beat 11th-seeded Elena Likhovtseva of Russia 6-1, 6-3, and Ava Ivanovic of Serbia-Montenegro eliminated 12th-seeded Tatiana Golovin of France 6-3, 6-4.
Also, 15th-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria, and four-time Italian Open champion Conchita Martinez of Spain routed qualifier Angela Haynes of the United States 6-0, 6-1; and 1997 Italian Open winner Mary Pierce defeated Shuai Peng of China 6-1, 7-5.
