Defending champion Maria Sharapova showed no signs of her recent struggles with form and fitness as she beat Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky 6-2, 6-3 to move into the second round of the Madrid Open on Sunday.
The Russian dominated the Bacsinszky serve in the first set to break three times and then depended on her own in the second as one break in the eighth game was enough to set up a second round clash with Britain’s Heather Watson or Colombian Mariana Duque-Marino.