Garbine Muguruza, Venus Williams power into round of 16 at Cincinnati

ByEurosport

Updated 16/08/2017 at 06:32 GMT

Garbine Muguruza got her final U.S. Open tune-up event off to a flying start as the Wimbledon champion stormed by Brazilian qualifier Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-2 6-0 to reach the third round of the Cincinnati Open on Tuesday.

Garbine Muguruza of Spain plays a shot against Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium (not pictured) during the Rogers Cup tennis tournament at Aviva Centre

Image credit: Reuters

Spanish fourth seed Muguruza, fresh off a quarter-finals loss to eventual winner Elina Svitolina at Toronto last week, needed only 65 minutes to earn the straight sets win over Haddad Maia and book her spot in the round of 16.

After trading breaks with Haddad Maia over the course of the first four games, Muguruza found another gear and went on to win the final 10 games of the match.

"I felt like a lot of games were super tight. She's super tall, big serve with big shots. It was a strange result, because the match was pretty good," said world number six Muguruza.

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"I feel like yesterday I was playing on the grass, and now I'm here. I'm happy to be in the third round here."

Muguruza now awaits the winner of Wednesday's clash between American 16th seed Madison Keys and Russian Daria Kasatkina.

Ninth-seeded Venus Williams used her powerful serve and pinpoint shot making to defeat fellow American Alison Riske 6-2 6-0 in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters on Tuesday.

Riske put a volley wide to end a seven-minute game and hand the first set to Williams on a sunny day on center court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

An early break in the second set put the 37-year-old Williams in complete control and she cruised to victory.

Fashion-conscious Williams' biggest struggle on the court may have been with her jewelry after her hoop earing fell off at one point and later got tangled with her necklace.

The win sets up a second round battle between Williams and Australian Ashleigh Barty, who defeated American Varvara Lepchenko 6-4 6-4 earlier on Tuesday.

In other first round action, Latvia's French Open champion and 12the seed Jelena Ostapenko was upset 6-4 6-2 by unseeded Russian Aleksandra Krunic.

Tenth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska also had a surprisingly early exit after she fell 6-4 6-4 to German Julia Gorges in the round of 64.

Second seed Simona Halep overcame an early deficit to beat American qualifier Taylor Townsend 6-4 6-1 and also reach the third round.

Romanian Halep, the 2015 Cincinnati runner-up, fell behind early but reeled off four consecutive games, including two love service holds, to clinch the opening set and remained in control the rest of the way.

Halep will next face Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova, who earlier rallied to beat China's Peng Shuai 3-6 6-4 6-2.