Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova in next round at WTA hardcourt tournament

Montreal: Even a rain delay barely slowed defending champion Serena Williams in her 6-0, 6-2 progress past Samantha Stosur Wednesday at the WTA hardcourt tournament at Montreal. Williams, the World No.1 and top seed, had seized the first set and they were knotted at 1-1 in the second when rain halted play.

The American showed no ill-effects when they returned to the court, wrapping up the victory over the unseeded Australian in 58 minutes.

Williams stretched her career record over Stosur to 7-3. The Australian stunned Williams in the final of the 2011 US Open, but Williams has now won all three of their meetings since. Maria Sharapova had to rally for a three-set victory over Garbine Muguruza to reach the third round.

The former World No.1 fought back to beat the rising Spanish talent 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 to set up a meeting with Carla Suarez Navarro, who was a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 winner over Karolina Pliskova.

Sharapova, playing her first match since a surprise fourth-round exit at Wimbledon, was a runner-up at this event in 2009 when it was held in Toronto. She was pleased to get her campaign off to a winning start against a player who won her first career singles title at Hobart this year and has four career wins over top-10 players on her resume.

Meanwhile, sixth-seeded German left-hander Angelique Kerber made short work of France’s Caroline Garcia 6-4, 6-1 and 11th-seeded former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki steamrolled Czech Klara Koukalova 6-1, 6-2. In the other match, Petra Kvitova, defeated Casey Dellacqua 6-3, 6-2.