Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens advance in Rogers Cup

Serena Williams celebrates winning a point against Francesca Schiavone during their Rogers Cup match, Aug 7, 2013. PHOTO/Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press

World number one Serena Williams easily won her opening match in the Rogers Cup in Toronto, beating Italy’s Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-2 on Wednesday night at the Rexall Center.

Williams, coming off a victory 2 1/2 weeks ago in the Swedish Open, set up a third-round match Thursday against 13th-seeded Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium. Flipkens edged Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.

“I felt good. I felt solid,” Williams said. “I obviously made a few errors but it’s just my first match on hard court in a really long time. I also played a really good player, so it was a good match.”

Sloane Stephens advanced to the second round, topping Germany’s Mona Barthel 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Also, fourth-seeded Li Na of China topped Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-4; fifth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy edged Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 7-6 (2); and France’s Alize Cornet of France beat 11th-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia 7-5, 7-5.

In late matches, sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic edged Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-2; Romania’s Sorana Cirstea knocked off ninth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 5-7, 7-6 (0), 6-4; and and 12th-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia beat Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press