Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova breeze through at 2016 Australian Open

12:00, 20 January 2016

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Top seed Serena Williams made light work of unseeded Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei to charge into the Australian Open third round with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. There was also a regulation win for Maria Sharapova on day three of play at Melbourne Park, but two-times grand slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova fell to a shock defeat.

The No1-ranked Williams, bidding for a 22nd grand slam title to match the great Steffi Graf, cruised through the one-hour romp in glorious sunshine at Rod Laver Arena without dropping serve.

The 90th-ranked Hsieh, a two-time grand slam doubles champion, prised three break-points but the American saved them all and closed out the match with a huge ace.

Williams advances to play the winner of Daria Kasatkina and Ana Konjuh in the next round.

Fifth seed and last year's runner-up Sharapova cruised into the third round with a 6-2, 6-1 rout of unseeded Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the opening match at Rod Laver Arena.

Sealing match point with a booming first serve, the 2008 champion next faces the winner of Lauren Davis and Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova.

Kuznetsova was dumped out of the tournament by former doubles winner Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 7-5 at the Hisense Arena.

Kuznetsova, seeded 23rd, rallied from 5-3 down in a fiercely contested second set but Ukrainian Bondarenko held firm and sealed the win on the second match point.

Source: The Guardian.com

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