Past champs progress in Miami

Baltacha's brave run in Miami ended by Wickmayer

Williams: straight sets victory

Past champions Svetlana Kuznetsova and Venus Williams both secured their places in the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Thursday.

However, while Williams enjoyed a comfortable straight sets victory over Sorana Cirstea of Romania, top seed Kuznetsova was pushed all the way before finally seeing off Peng Shuai of China in three sets.

The Russian, champion in Miami in 2006, looked on course for a routine win after easing through the first set, but her opponent hit back in the second to force a decider.

But Kuznetsova held her nerve to ensure she moves on in the tournament, eventually prevailing 6-2 3-6 6-4.

Elena Baltacha's brave run was ended by 12th seed Yanina Wickmayer who ultimately proved far too strong for the Briton.

The Belgian was always in control after a one-sided first set and went on to record a straightforward 6-1 6-3 victory.

Wickmayer will now face Croatian wildcard Petra Martic who claimed an epic 7-5 5-7 6-4 success against 18th seed Aravane Rezai of France in a match that lasted over two-and-a-half hours.

Agnieszka Radwanska, a semi-finalist at Indian Wells earlier in the month, was another straight sets winner as she brushed aside the challenge of Russia's Ekaterina Makarova to reach the third round of the Florida tournament.

Radwanska, seeded sixth, dominated from the off and forced 13 break points during the opening set, but her failure to take all but three of them saw her only sneak the first set 7-5.

But, having got her nose in front, she proved far more ruthless in the second and swept through it without losing a further game.

High-profile casualties

There were two high-profile casualties in the shape of Chnia's Li Na and Flavia Pennetta of Italy.

Eighth seed Li was involved in a titanic struggle with Swiss Timea Bacsinszky, who triumphed 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7-3).

Meanwhile, Pennetta, fell apart in the final set of her contest as she slipped to a 6-3 3-6 6-0 defeat against Andrea Petkovic.

Thirteenth seed Marion Bartoli is also through after she eased past Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, the Frenchwoman recording five breaks of serve in total on her way to a 6-2 6-4 win.

The other seeds to secure a safe passage through to the third round were Nadia Petrova (16), Daniela Hantuchova (19), Ana Ivanovic (25) and Agnes Szavay (27) who beat Kimiko Date Krumm, Patty Schnyder, Pauline Parmentier and Alicia Molik respectively.

But seeds Aleksandra Wozniak and Sabine Lisicki exited as the former lost 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to Polona Hercog, while Lisicki was forced to retire while trailing 3-6 1-0 to Yaroslava Shvedova.

Alona Bondarenlo and Anabel Medina Garrigues, seeded 21 and 30, also bowed out as they suffered straight-sets defeats at the hands of Gisela Dulko and Roberta Vinci respectively.