This content was published 10 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.

Given the exit of several seeds in men’s competition on Wednesday, the women’s part of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia was considerably less eventful by comparison. That is not to say the standard was not high – it was. And no-one, with the possible exception of Serena Williams, is higher in standard than Maria Sharapova at the moment. The Russian was one of the last players to begin her Foro Italico campaign but produced a trademark stylish display to win with ease against Spanish qualifier Garbine Muguruza. It means Sharapova can look forward to a third round meeting with the American 16th seed Sloane Stephens. “She is also another one who is climbing in the ranking and having a lot of success in Australia and on clay,” said Sharapova. “I have not played against her for some time – for about over a year. She likes to get into her opponent and she grinds it it out and so I’m looking forward to it.  “The conditions were windy but I was able to adjust to win this match and Garbine is a rising players from Spain and she is playing well. I needed to be sharp as quick as possible and I did a few things well.” The fifth seed Li Na and ninth seed Sam Stosur both came through matches with Zheng Jie and Peng Shuai respectively while Italian favourite Sara Errani finally beat Christina McHale on her ninth match point.