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Sharapova, Nadal set the scene for Thursday
Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet will be playing their second rond matches on Thursday.
Teenagers take centre stage at Wimbledon on Thursday with Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, Richard Gasquet and Andrew Murray all in second round action.
Sharapova, who beat Serena Williams in last year's final, is relishing defending her crown this time around.
"I love going out there and challenging myself... I love when people want to beat me or underestimate me," the 18-year-old Russian said.
Serena, going for her third title, faces Italy's Mara Santangelo while older sister Venus, also a twice former champion, plays Australia's Nicole Pratt.
In the men's field, French Open winner Rafael Nadal takes on Gilles Muller of Luxembourg while number seed two Andy Roddick continues his campaign for a first Wimbledon title.
Nadal is looking to be the first player since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to achieve back-to-back victories at Roland Garros and Wimbledon but the 19-year-old is not talking up his chances.
"I think I cannot win this year...I think Federer, Hewitt, Henman are better here."
Should he come through, Nadal's next opponent is likely to be fellow 19-year-old, Gasquet. The Frenchman, who also met Nadal at the same stage at the French Open last month, has been in scintillating form on grass and will expect to see off Belgium's Gilles Elseneer.
Another British hopeful, Andrew Murray, believes he can also use the crowd to his advantage against Czech number 14 seed Radek Stepanek.
"There's a lot of people wanting me to do well. So I just have to take the positives from it... the bigger the court they put me on, the more nervous he's going to get." the 18-year-old said calmly.
