Maria Sharapova has handled herself, the pressure and the distractions gracefully. Simon Bruty/SI

In women's tennis, it's nearly impossible to go a day, watch a match or attend a tournament without coming upon some cautionary tale. Loony parents, abusive coaches, eating disorders, ridiculous apparel, burnout: No sport consumes its young with more variety, and the victims in each melodramatic category stretch back decades. But Maria Sharapova faces a hazard almost entirely new, with only one real precedent -- and its name isn't Anna Kournikova.

Once it became clear, two years ago, that this poster-ready blonde Russian had the game to win Wimbledon, Sharapova found herself continually answering the Anna Question: Will your beauty destroy your tennis? Will the fact that you can make millions off your face and body drain all motivation to realize your talent? Last year, of course, Sharapova disposed of that concern when, at 17, she blitzed Serena Williams to win the Wimbledon crown and establish herself as the sport's new superstar.

You'll still hear Anna K. come up in the occasional press conference, but everyone knows it doesn't apply anymore. Instead, Sharapova is asked about "distractions" -- the magazine covers (Forbes, this week), her new perfume, the commercials (if you're just back from a month-long trek in the jungle, here's some breaking news: Maria Was Here), the fact that she has gained a crossover celebrity that took Chris Evert four years to achieve. Really, only two other players have ever dealt with the unprecedented whirlwind surrounding Sharapova now. Whether Venus and Serena Williams are handling it well has yet to be seen.

On Thursday, all three women played and won at Wimbledon, leaving wildly different impressions. Venus and Serena are different players, of course, and their careers have diverged dramatically in recent years. Venus hasn't won a Grand Slam since the 2001 U.S. Open; Serena has won six since, including this year's Australian Open. At 25, Venus is physically sound for the first time in years; Serena, 23, still is hampered by an ankle injury that forced her to withdraw from the French Open.

But in the public mind -- and their own -- the sisters remain tightly connected, and in no more obvious way than their perceived attitude: Venus and Serena, it's said, don't have the fire for the game anymore. Fashion design, boyfriends, a co-written book, an upcoming reality series -- all have been blamed for their on-court struggles, and it's easy to see why. Venus' 7-5, 6-3 win over Nicole Pratt was an exercise in wavering concentration and odd lapses you never saw in her prime, and Serena's 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over the 124th-ranked Mara Santangelo -- her second straight struggle with a plus-100 player -- make the prospect of the two sisters meeting in the fourth round nothing to look forward to.

Sharapova, on the other hand, couldn't have been more focused. Maybe it's because that, at 18, it's easier to shut out the world. Maybe it's that her opponent, the 52nd-ranked Sesil Karatantcheva, made the mistake of predicting before her first meeting with Sharapova last year that she would, "kick her ass off." Sharapova crushed Karatantcheva in the blazing sunshine out on Court 1, serving supremely, blasting unanswerable ground strokes off both wings and from every angle and winning 6-0, 6-1 in a cruise-control 46 minutes. Karatantcheva remained cheekily unrepentant after. "I meant what I said; I'm not sorry," she said. "Who knows? Maybe I'll say it again sometime."