Sharapova, Serena into Wimbledon third round

Former champions Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams took drastically different routes into the Wimbledon third round on Thursday.

Top seed Sharapova, the 2004 champion, had to dig deep to clinch a gritty 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (3/7), 6-0 victory over Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova, a semi-finalist in 2010 and quarter-finalist last year.

Sharapova, playing her first tournament since her maiden French Open triumph, had recovered from 5-2 down to take the first set and had just broken to move 3-1 ahead when the tie was suspended due to bad light on Wednesday evening. On the resumption, Pironkova belied her ranking of 38 to level the tie as the Court One crowd sensed an upset.

It was the first set the 24-year-old had snatched from the Russian in four meetings, but Sharapova took her 2012 three-set record to a perfect nine from nine by racing through the decider. AFP