By Erik Gudris | Wednesday, August 6, 2014

 

Serena Williams dropped just two games in her opening round match in Montreal. Maria Sharapova got through a three set test earlier.

Photo Credit: AP

Top seed and defending Rogers Cup champion Serena Williams annonced herself as perhaps the player to beat after posting a stirling second round win on Wednesday in Montreal. Though this was Williams' first match in the Canadian city in over 14 years, she looked right at home on the main court.

ATP: Djokovic Survives Wild Ride Versus Monfils in Toronto.

Despite her opponent, Australian Sam Stosur, owning several wins versus Williams in the past, this meeting was all about Williams from the first game of the opening set. Williams with massive returns broke Stosur multiple times. The result? Williams took the set 6-0 in just 18 minutes.

The onslaught continued from Williams into the second set even when Stosur manged to win a pair of games. Williams eventually broke for a 4-2 lead and never looked back.

A final ace on match point sealed the convincing 6-0, 6-2 in just 54 minutes.

"I thought I played well tonight. She's won a Grand Slam title and she's a really good player, so it was important for me to play well," Williams said later to WTA.com.

Next up for the recent Stanford champion will be Lucie Safarova.

No. 4 seed Maria Sharapova overcame a determined opponent to advance as well. Spain's Garbine Muguruza proved she was up to the task of perhaps upsetting the recent French Open champion.

Both players engaged in a tense, hard hitting opening set eventually won by Muguruza 6-4. Sharapova though finally starting getting her game in gear midway through the second set. She would take that set then roll through the decider completing a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win, her first since Wimbledon.

"It's been a few weeks since I've been in a competitive atmosphere," Sharapova said. "It's always quite different than practice no matter how much you train. Once you step on the court, you feel the energy from the crowd and you get inspired by everything, but you're ultimately a bit rusty. I'm just happy that I got through that and won today because I had a very tough opponent."

Other winners on the day included Jelena Jankovic over Sloane Stephens 6-7(7), 6-4. 7-6(4) and Venus Williams getting past Yulia Putintseva 6-3, 6-2. UK's Heather Watson pulled off the first big upset as she took out No. 10 seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-7(3), 7-6(5).