World No.1 Serena Williams cruised into the last 16 of the Madrid Open tennis tournament on Wednesday with a 6-2 6-3 thrashing of China's Peng Shuai.
The 17-time grand slam champion had too much power off the ground and on serve for the world No.42 on the fifth day of the combined ATP Madrid Masters and WTA Open event. A pair of breaks clinched the first set before one break in the second.
Williams sets up a third-round meeting with Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro or fellow American Alison Riske, as she looks to defend her title.
Fourth-seeded Romanian Simona Halep beat Lara Arruabarrena of Spain 6-4 6-4 in another second-round match-up, while Caroline Garcia of France advanced over Russian Maria Kirilenko via a walkover due to a wrist injury.
On the men's side, Tomas Berdych moved to a perfect 11-0 against Kevin Anderson following his 6-1 6-4 win over the South African.
"I always like to play here," the sixth-seeded Czech said. "There was also the aspect of the many matches I've played with Kevin and all of them went my way."
In other second-round action, Lukasz Kubot of Poland defeated Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-5 2-6 6-4 and Latvia's Ernests Gulbis accounted for Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3 6-4.
Top-ranked Rafael Nadal was scheduled to begin his title defence later on Wednesday against Juan Monaco.
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