Charleston, April 17:

Maria Sharapova blanked American Bethanie Mattek 6-0, 6-0 in the second round of the Family Circle Cup on Wednesday.

Top-seeded Jelena Jankovic opened her title defense by beating American qualifier Alexandra Stevenson 7-5, 6-0. Fifth ranked Jankovic prevailed after losing her serve twice in the first, and saved all three break points she faced in the second. Next up for Jankovic will be Anastasia Rodionova of Russia, who beat Aravane Rezai of France 6-3, 6-4.

Two Russian seeds, No 4 Elena Dementieva and No 9 Vera Zvonareva, cruised into the third round. Dementieva beat American Jill Craybas 6-0, 6-2, and Zvonareva downed Spain’s Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-1, 6-0.

No 7 Patty Schnyder beat Olga Govortsova of Belarus 7-6 (2), 6-0, and next meets No 11 Agnieszka Radwanska, who outlasted Edina Gallovits of Romania 6-7 (7), 6-2, 7-5. No 12 Katarina Srebotnik beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 4-6, 6-1, 7-5. No 13 Victoria Azarenka topped Sun Tiantian of China 7-6 (4), 6-0, and other winners included Alize Cornet of France.

Estoril Open

ESTORIL: Second seed Nikolay Davydenko shrugged off a sluggish start, claiming his ninth win in succession to move into the Estoril Open quarter-finals.

The Russian staged a comeback to defeat Czech Ivo Minar 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. He will next face seventh seed Marc Gicquel, who beat fellow Frenchman Thierry Ascione 7-6 (7/2), 6-3. Elsewhere in the second round, Florent Serra beat Rui Machado 7-6 (7/5), 6-1. Italian Flavio Cipolla upset fifth seed Gilles Simon 6-2, 5-3 as the French player retired with a back injury.

The women’s draw lost its top seed as former semi-finalist Flavia Pennetta crashed out to Czech Iveta Benesova 6-2, 6-2. Italian third seed Karin Knapp, February’s Antwerp finalist, got a victory over Mariana Duque Marino of Colombia 6-3, 6-4 while French eighth seed Camille Pin reached the quarter-finals against Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 6-3, 6-4. — AFP