Serena eases through, Tipsarevic out

World No.1 Serena Williams eased into the third round of the Madrid Open with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Spain’s Lourdes Dominguez Lino on Tuesday. The American had struggled early on in her first-round match against Kazak qualifier Yulia Puntitseva, but began much brighter as she broke Dominguez Lino straight away to take command.

A momentary lapse in concentration at 5-1 saw Williams broken, but she responded immediately to break the Spaniard’s serve once more to close out the set.

The second set started in a similar vein as Williams seized a 2-0 lead, but Dominguez Lino fought back bravely to level matters at 2-2 before the next seven games went with serve.

However, the World No. 47 finally crumbled when serving to stay in the match at 5-6 as Williams broke to love to seal victory.

Earlier, 14th seed Marion Bartoli overcame a twisted ankle during the second set of her matchagainst Spaniard Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor to progress 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

Serbian Janko Tipsarevic became the first seed in the men’s event to fall on Tuesday morning as he was beaten by clay court specialist Juan Monaco.

The Argentine took the first set in the tie-break 7-5 before coming through 6-3 in the second.

And world No.15 Stanislaw Wawrinka continued his fine form after winning the Portugal Open last week with a comfortable 6-4, 6-4 win over Romanian qualifier Marius Copil.

AFP