Venus takes commanding second round Wimbledon win
Venus Williams has defeated Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets to move through to the third round at Wimbledon.
The 2009 runner-up raced to the first set in just 25 minutes and while the Aegon International champion fought back to made a contest of the match in the second, Williams still ran out a comfortable 6-0, 6-4 winner on centre court.
While Makarova racked up an impressive list of victories at Eastbourne last week, including French Open runner-up Sam Stosur in the semis and Victoria Azarenka in the final, in Venus the Russian found herself facing an opponent in another league altogether.
Shell-shocked by the either her opponent, the occasion, or both, Makarova conceded the opening set to the second seed with barely a whimper, before finally locating some of the fight and the shots that took her to her maiden WTA title just days ago in the second.
It wasn’t enough, but when the world No. 67 did manage to break Venus’ serve in the second set, there was at least the glimmer of a challenge afoot, but the five-time champion rose to meet it and take one more step towards reclaiming the Wimbledon crown sister Serena took from her in the final last year.
Elsewhere, 12th seed Nadia Petrova, 24th seed Daniela Hantuchova and 27th seed Maria Kirilenko have won their second round matches, while 11th seed Marion Bartoli is through to the third round after a walkover in her second round match against Petra Martic.
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