Serena Williams cruised into the last 16 of the Madrid Masters

Madrid: World number one Serena Williams cruised into the last 16 of the Madrid Masters on Wednesday with a 6-2, 6-3 thrashing of China’s Shuai Peng. 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.

Serena wore a heavy strapping on her left leg throughout the match, but insisted there is no serious injury to worry about. “It’s okay. I was just taping it to make sure it stays kind of warm and ready. I just had some issues and went preventive to make sure I didn’t make anything worse,” she said.

“I’m literally taking it one day, one match at a time, and not putting any pressure on myself here,” she added. 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,” said the Romanian who could face compatriot Irina-Camelia Begu next should she overcome Sabine Lisicki.

The Results

Women’s second round: Lucie Safarova (CZE) bt Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) 6-1, 6-2; Li Na (CHN x2) bt Zheng Jie (CHN) 6-2, 6-3; Maria Sharapova (RUS x8) bt Christina McHale (USA) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4; Sloane Stephens (USA x16) bt Petra Cetkovska (CZE) 6-4, 2-6, 6-3; Samantha Stosur (AUS) bt Garbine Muguruza (ESP) 7-5, 3-6, 6-1; Sara Errani (ITA x10) bt Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 6-3, 6-1; Petra Kvitova (CZE x5) bt Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 2-6, 6-2, 6-1; Ana Ivanovic (SRB x11) bt Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) 6-4, 6-2.

Sania-Cara in quarters

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 here 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 clay court tournament. Sania and Cara have also moved to third place in the Race to Singapore, where the year-end finals will be played in November. They have 2247 points.