Venus Williams Powers Into Third Round

Venus Williams dropped just four games as she marched on into the third round with a demolition of Ekaterina Makarova as she showed that she means business on the hunt for another Wimbledon title.

The American needed just an hour to see off the challenge of the Russian as the Eastbourne champion didn't even get a look in during the first set.

After just twenty five minutes and a masterclass from Williams she had handed Makarova a bagel set and was well on her way into the next round.

The second set was more competitive as the Russian finally settled into her game and managed to keep hold of her serve in the third game of the second set.

But when Williams broke again to take 5-2 lead the match looked done and dusted. But the Russian was playing for her pride as she surprisingly broke Williams as she served for the match.

But it was too little too late as Williams broke straight back in the next game to wrap up the win 6-0 6-4. She will now face twenty sixth seed Alisa Kleybanova who saw off Alla Kudryvtseva.

Jelena Jankovic was given a tough test in her second round match as she was forced to come from a set down against Aleksandra Wozniak.

The former world number one struggled with her game in that opening set, Wozniak took full advantage as she surprisingly took the lead.

But Jankovic, who is looking to go further that her best effort of a fourth round at SW19 pulled herself together and was more dominant in the second set, a double break enough to see her pull level.

There were breaks of serve in a topsy turvy final set but Jankovic pulled on all of her experience as she finally came through 4-6 6-2 6-4.

She will now face Alona Bondarenko  in the third round as the Ukranian player also had a three set tussle with Varvara Lepchenko, finally coming through 4-6 6-4 6-3.

Nadia Petrova dropped just seven games on her way to a straight forward 6-3 6-4 win over Chan while eleventh seed Marion Bartoli had a walkover to the next round after Petra Martic withdrew due to injury.

Femalefirst Helen Earnshaw