Sesil Karatantcheva, the 15-year-old Bulgarian with a friendly smile and a gift for gab, was made to eat her words yesterday.

For 47 minutes, Maria Sharapova toyed with the youngster, stringing together 14 straight points in one run and then finishing Karatantcheva off with another 12. Sharapova even implied that she had given her opponent the one game she did win, sparing her from an embarrassing double bagel, 6-0, 6-1.

“I know how it feels to lose 0 and 0, and it’s not a good feeling, so I just let that one go,” Sharapova said.

Ouch. Double ouch, in fact, considering that Karatantcheva, the latest sensation at the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida, probably would rather hear those words from anyone besides Sharapova, another Bollettieri protegee for whom Karatantcheva does not have the warmest feelings.

Last year, Sharapova allegedly skipped a practice match at Bollettieri after Karatantcheva had threatened that she was “going to kick her ass off.” The slight offended Karatantcheva, who told the press at the 2004 Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Calif., “If she’s too scared to come on the court, her problem. I was like, ‘Whatever. I’m going to get you.'”

For a game yesterday, it looked liked Sharapova might have reason to be worried. “Special K,” as Karatantcheva is called, earned herself two break points to begin the match. But after four deuces, Sharapova held serve and never looked back.

No matter how hard Karatantcheva hit the ball, Sharapova handled it with ease. The 18-year-old Russian loves pace, and she loved Karatantcheva’s weak serve, too. Twice she broke the Bulgarian at love in the second set.

When Karatantcheva, who met with her first big success last month when she knocked Venus Williams out of the French Open, finally did win a game, the packed Court 1 stadium treated her to an extended ovation. She smiled wide and laughed.

“The first thing I thought, ‘Oh my God, they feel sorry for me, this is so nice,'” Karatantcheva said. “These people paid so much money today, is this all I’m going to give them, 50 unforced errors?”

In truth, there were only 20. But given the magnitude of the drubbing, it was no surprise that Karatantcheva had miscounted.