Maria Sharapova reaches last 16 in Madrid

The Russian, who lost in the early rounds of her last three tournaments, continued her return to form with a very dominant performance against the Colombian.

The 28-year-old broke her opponent’s serve four times during the match whilst saving three break points on her own serve to come through the match in double-quick time.

Elsewhere, Petra Kvitova survived a mid-match hiccup to win her battle of the big servers and advance into the last 16 at the expense of rising star CoCo Vanderweghe.

The Czech, who missed Indian Wells and Miami due to exhaustion, had only played a couple of singles matches in the Fed Cup prior to the Mutua Madrid Open and looked rusty during her encounter.

But despite struggling for consistency, she stuck to her big-serving, big-hitting game and outlasted the American, coming through 6-4 2-6 6-3.

Victoria Azarenka set up a third-round tie with top seed Serena Williams after beating Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3 6-3.