Sharapova cruises into third round

Maria Sharapova put in a business-like performance to cast aside qualifier Timea Bacsinszky 6-2, 6-1 in only an hour on her way to the third round at Wimbledon.

The fifth-seed showed the sort of ruthless precision that won her the French Open title this month. She broke Bacsinszky’s serve five times on Thursday, forcing her Swiss opponent to scramble left and right to retrieve powerful groundstrokes.

Earlier, five-time champion Serena Williams wasted no time in reaching the third round at Wimbledon, routing Chanelle Scheepers 6-1, 6-1 in just 49 minutes.

Chasing her 18th Grand Slam title, the top-seeded American overwhelmed the 94th-ranked South African in the opening match on Court 1 at the All England Club.

Former world number one Ana Ivanovic beat Zheng Jie of China 6-4, 6-0.

Other results (selected):

Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan) beat Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) 6-3, 6-7, 6-2
Alize Cornet (France) beat Petra Cetkovska (Czech Republic) 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
Angelique Kerber (Germany) beat Heather Watson (Britain) 6-2 5-7 6-1
Eugenie Bouchard (Canada) beat Silvia Soler Espinosa (Spain) 7-5 6-1
Sabine Lisicki (Germany) beat Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) 6-3 7-5