For all the talk of dresses or shorts, warm up tuxedos and stylish fashion statements, Maria Sharapova's exit from Wimbledon was as understated and bland as they come.

It would be a push to say she even went out with a fight, so tame and tentative was she both on serve and from the back of the court.

These days, the early rounds of Grand Slams for the top women are so often uncompetitive affairs that the fashion becomes almost the only talking point.

For instance, Sharapova fielded five times as many questions about her outfit compared to her tennis after her first-round win.

So, she strode on against world No154 Alla Kudryavtseva confidently in her custom-made Nike warm-up gear and almost ceremonially degowned down to her playing outfit.

But one hour and 24 minutes later, after 22 unforced errors to just 13 winners and losing more than half her points on her serve, Sharapova stuffed the same jacket into her handbag and trudged off without so much as a wave to the shellshocked Court One crowd.

The specialised outfit is a luxury afforded to a winner but probably made her feel silly when she loses 6-2, 6-4 to a player who has never won a WTA tournament or even a match at Wimbledon prior to these championships.

So was the fashion a distraction? "It's not the first time we've talked about what I was wearing," said Sharapova. "I've won plenty of tournaments with a lot of talk going on."

That may be true but her inability to produce anything like her best tennis prompted questions over her focus and fitness rather than her fashion sense.

Sharapova insists she is fully fit but it is impossible to explain such a poor showing against a player who she should have beaten with ease.

Kudryavtseva's serve will hold her back from ever becoming a major player - she rarely touched 100mph and her average second serve of 83mph is a sitting duck for the top players. But if Sharapova insists the fashion talk was not a distraction, it appears it may have motivated her opponent.

The WTA Tour is notoriously catty and when asked why it was so special to beat her fellow Russian, Kudryavtseva replied: "Well, I don't like her outfit. Can I put it this way?

"I liked her outfit at the French Open, so probably that's why. But, yeah, it's a little too much of everything, of the same thing."

The glitz and glamour Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and the Williams sisters have brought to the women's game is giving the sport welcome exposure.

But it appears the players beneath the elite are bemused by the influence marketing campaigns and dress styles are increasingly having in creating interest at major tournaments. The top players are happy to talk clothes but the rest find it all a little bewildering.

So come on Alla, why don't you like her outfit?

"Oh, come on," she pleaded, "now you're going to take me to the fashion discussion? I'm not very good in fashion. I don't know the trends.

"She experiments, and I give her credit for that. Sometimes she has good ones, sometimes not. That's my personal opinion, again. Maybe someone will tell me I dress terribly but it was one of the motivations to beat her."

And is she worried about the repercussions in the dressing room over her comments about Maria's fashion sense?

"If I'm not afraid to go play her and she's world No.2, I'm not afraid she's going to catch me in the dressing room and say, 'You know what, you said you don't like my outfit - you were wrong." I will say, 'sorry that's just my opinion'."

Quite right too. For if the top players earn the right to wear unique garb from sponsorship deals with more than second tier tournament wins, the lesser lights on the Tour are entitled to have their say. A short stay for the shorts outfit, indeed.

Elsewhere, Jelena Jankovic eased to a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain. Fifth seed Elena Dementieva had a tougher passage, coming from a set down against Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

But Daniela Hantuchova, seeded 10, is out after losing 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 to Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.