Wimbledon:Defending champion Venus Williams kept her bid for a sixth Wimbledon crown on course with a 6-3 6-2 success over Kateryna Bondarenko in the second round today.
Williams, sporting heavy strapping on her left leg, looked right at home as she dominated the 69-minute contest.
Bondarenko, the world number 73 from Ukraine, battled hard but had no answer to the American's superior power and was broken twice in each set.
Williams will face Carla Suarez Navarro in the third round. The Spaniard, who beat Williams at the Australian Open in January, booked her place in the last 32 with a 7-5 4-6 6-1 success against Russia's Ekaterina Makarova.
Top ranked Russian Dinara Safina drew a little closer to her maiden Grand Slam title with a convincing win over Rossana de Los Rios in the second round.
The world number one, who has never been beyond the third round at SW19, did not have to face a break point on the way to her 6-3 7-5 victory on Court Two.
Safina plays Kirsten Flipkins in the next round after the Belgian ended home interest in the women's singles with a 7-5 6-1 win over Elena Baltacha.
Baltacha, the British number two, claimed the initiative with a break early in the opening set but thereafter struggled to contain Flipkens, who she had beaten in both their previous meetings.
Svetlana Kuznetsova needed just an hour to see off Pauline Parmentier in her second-round encounter.
The Russian, seeded fifth at SW19, claimed a 6-1 6-3 victory and will play Sabine Lisicki in the last 32 after Lisicki beat Patricia Mayr 6-2 6-4.
Kuznetsova, fresh from her French Open triumph earlier in June, hit 22 winners and did not face a break point during a dominant performance.
Samantha Stosur, the 18th seed, fought back from a set down to dispatch Germany's Tatjana Malek.
The Australian, a semi-finalist at the French Open, eventually prevailed 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.
Agnieszka Radwanska, the 11th seed, was extended to three sets by China's Shuai Peng.
Radwanska wasted a match point when 6-5 ahead in the second set tie-break but, well over an hour later, closed out a 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 9-7 triumph.
Ana Ivanovic progressed in straight sets. The former world number one, seeded 13th after a spectacular fall from grace over the past 12 months, defeated Italy's Sara Errani 7-5 6-1.