Fourth seed Maria Sharapova rallied for a 4-6 6-3 6-1 second-round win over Spain’s Garbine Muguruza while Serena Williams destroyed former US Open champion Samantha Stosur as order and power was restored to the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
A day after the tournament was left without power and its main attraction when Canada’s Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard suffered a surprise opening-match loss, the event enjoyed a return to normalcy as the electricity was back on and Sharapova moved into the third round.
World number one Williams, just days after bagging her fourth title of the year at Stanford, then joined her with a 6-0 6-2 thrashing of 2011 Flushing Meadows champion Stosur in a touch under an hour.
“It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been in that competitive atmosphere,” said Sharapova, who has not played since her fourth round loss at Wimbledon.
“It’s always quite different, no matter how much you train, you try to prepare for that.
“Once you step on the court, you feel a little bit more from the crowd, the energy. You get inspired by everything. But you’re ultimately a bit rusty.”
The French Open champion was far from sharp in her return as the promising young Spaniard took advantage of several errors by the Russian to grab the opening set.
But Sharapova was able to convert on the big points to stay on track for a first ever title on the Canadian hard courts.
“I didn’t feel good, I made a lot of errors,” said Sharapova.
“When you’re able to finish stronger than your start, that’s always a positive because you give yourself an opportunity to keep playing in the tournament.”
Sixth seeded German Angelique Kerber, who has four runner-up finishes this season, had no trouble beating Caroline Garcia easing past the Frenchwoman 6-4 6-1.
Kerber has had a solid start to her North American hard court campaign after reaching the final in Stanford last week but in four visits to Canada has never ad-vanced past the third round.
Eleventh seed Caroline Woz-niacki, the 2010 Canadian champion, yesterday thrashed Shelby Rogers 6-1 6-0 while qualifier Heather Watson provided an early upset when the Briton shocked 10th seed and Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 6-7 7-6.
Ana Ivanovic was also sent packing, losing to Coco Vandeweghe in three sets.
Late result
Third round: Navarro bt Sharapova 6-2 4-6 6-2.