Sharapova, Venus march on at Wimbledon

Wimbledon, England (Sports Network) - Second-seeded and former champion Maria Sharapova and three-time winner Venus Williams were easy second-round winners Thursday at Wimbledon.
The 2004 Wimbledon titlist Sharapova breezed past France's Severine Bremond 6-0, 6-3. The two-time major champion Sharapova was last year's U.S. Open champ and this year's Australian Open runner-up.
A 23rd-seeded Williams improved to a career 46-7 at the All England Club with a 6-2, 6-2 spanking of Czech Hana Sromova. The five-time Grand Slam event champion captured this grass-court extravaganza in 2000, 2001 and 2005 and was the 2002 and 2003 runner-up to her younger sister Serena.
Former U.S. Open champion and 2006 French Open runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova handled American Bethanie Mattek 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, while 2007 French Open finalist Ana Ivanovic of Serbia bested American Meilen Tu 6-4, 6-3 to advance at the AEC. Kuznetsova and Ivanovic are seeded fifth and sixth here, respectively. Ivanovic gave way to reigning world No. 1 Justine Henin in the final at Roland Garros earlier this month.
Eighth-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze cruised past Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus 6-2, 6-1, while 10th-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova struggled to top Russian veteran Elena Likhovtseva 7-5, 7-6 (7-3).
A surprise came when Japan's Akiko Morigami toppled 13th-seeded Russian Dinara Safina 6-4, 7-5.
In other second-round action involving top-16 seeds, No. 11 Russian Nadia Petrova pasted Indian Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-2; No. 12 Russian Elena Dementieva, a two-time Grand Slam runner-up, drubbed Czech Iveta Benesova 6-2, 6-2; No. 14 Czech Nicole Vaidisova vaulted past veteran Aussie Nicole Pratt 6-3, 6-2; and No. 15 Swiss Patty Schnyder overcame Italian Roberta Vinci 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Other seeded second-round winners were No. 19 Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik, No. 24 Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, No. 25 Czech Lucie Safarova, No. 26 Japanese Ai Sugiyama, No. 28 Italian Mara Santangelo and No. 31 Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek.
In some other upsets, Austrian Tamira Paszek took out 17th-seeded Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin 6-2, 3-6, 6-1; Belarusian Victoria Azarenka erased 21st-seeded Italian Tathiana Garbin 6-1, 6-3; France's Aravane Rezai clipped 29th-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 2-6, 6-4; and Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska leveled 32nd-seeded German Martina Muller 6-1, 4-0, retired.
One other second-round victor was veteran Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual.