MADRID, May 7 (AFP): World number one Serena Williams cruised into the last 16 of the Madrid Open on Wednesday with a 6-2, 6-3 thrashing of China's Peng Shuai.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion powered through the first set against the world number 42 for the loss of just one point on her own serve. Peng showed more resistence in the second, but couldn't convert on two break points and Williams needed just one chance to seal the only break of the set before serving out the match to set up a third round meeting with Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro or fellow American Alison Riske.
Fourth seed Simona Halep also had a comfortable passage into round three as she saw off Spain's Lara Arruabarrena 6-4, 6-4.
"This tournament means a lot for me, because the last year it was a real turning point for me. I'm really happy that I could win today in two sets to be in third round here," said the Romanian who could face compatriot Irina-Camelia Begu next should she overcome 15th seed Sabine Lisicki. In the men's Masters tournament, sixth seed Thomas Berdych stretched his perfect record against South African Kevin Anderson to 11-0 with a 6-1, 6-4 win.
"I always like to play here. The courts are great, very well prepared. It's a bit faster because of the altitude, which suits my game well and means I can serve well and play aggressively," said the Czech. "I think we have similar games, but I can always find something extra and that's the difference. It's also probably a mental thing as well now."
Polish lucky loser Lukasz Kubot made the most of Roger Federer's withdrawal to be at the birth of his twin sons on Tuesday by beating Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-5, 2-6, 6-4. Latvia's Ernests Gulbis also moved into round three with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Ukrainian Alexandr Golgopolov.
Sania-Cara move to Madrid quarters
MADRID, May 7 (PTI): Fifth seeds Sania Mirza and Cara Black had little problem in dispatching Hao-Ching Chan and Chanelle Scheepers as they scored a comfortable straight sets victory to progress to the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open on Wednesday. The Indo-Zimbabwean team defeated the Taipei-Protea pair 6-4, 6-1 in little over an hour in the second round contest of the euro 3,671,405 clay court tournament. Sania and Cara, winner of the Portugal Open last week, raced to 4-1 lead but Chan and Scheepers reduced the margin to make it 3-4. However, the Taeipei-Chinese pair could not sustain the momentum as Sania and Cara proved too good for them. Sania and Cara will now fight it with either wild card entrants Italian Francesca Schiavone and her Spanish partner Silvia Soler-Espinosa or the top seeds Su-Wei Hsieh from Taipei and Shuai Peng of China. Sania and Cara have moved to third place in the Race to Singapore, where the year-end finals will be played in November. World number one team Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci are heading the table with 3430 points, followed by Elena Vesnina and Ekaternia Makarova (2266) and Sania and Cara (2247).
