Serena Williams, Sharapova into third round

London, June 27 (IANS) Five-time champion Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova advanced to the third round at the Wimbledon here Thursday after comfortable victories over their opponents.

Williams, the top seed, used just 49 minutes to defeat Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 6-1, 6-1 while No.5 seed Sharapova cruised past Timea Bacsinszky in exactly an hour, reports Xinhua.

On her first outing since a shock French Open exit to Garbine Muguruza, Williams impressed during a quick-fire win over Anna Tatishvili in the first round at the All England Club.

When facing her next opponent, Scheepers, the American was again in complete control throughout, breaking twice to take the first set. After that Williams never looked back.

"I'm always the favourite," Williams acknowledged afterwards.

"It's been that way for the last three years and maybe years before that. So it can create pressure. But it's okay - I'd rather it was that way."

"I've been coming here for over decade and the crowd is always great and it's so great to see all my fans here. I love it!"

In the third round, Williams takes on Alize Cornet, who won a hard-fought battle with Petra Cetkovska at 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

Cornet and Williams last met in Dubai, with the former producing one of the best performances of her career to triumph in straight sets.

Bacsinszky, Sharapova's second round's rival, has two top 10 wins under her belt, winning three Wimbledon qualifying matches and her first-round match in straight sets.

After opening the match with a hold, Sharapova broke Bacsinszky at love, one of three breaks she converted during a comfortable first set win.

The second set was more of the same, with Sharapova breaking to go up 3-1 and not losing another game in her 6-2, 6-1 victory.

Sharapova, who now has 40 Wimbledon match wins to her name, has surrendered just four games through two matches.

"The first couple of matches are really crucial in terms of working on so many things as a grass court player and trying to make that transition from clay as quickly as possible," Sharapova said.

"The grass is quite different from the practice courts. Once you get out there, you try to focus a little bit more on executing better and not letting your focus go. That has been important in the last couple of matches."