Radwanska continues blistering form

Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska led a trio of leading players into the third round of the Australian Open.

Radwanska continued her blistering form with a routine 6-3 6-3 defeat of Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu on Rod Laver Arena. The Pole has now won 11 straight matches in 2013 without dropping a set - a run which saw her claim the titles in Auckland and Sydney heading into the season's first grand slam event.

She will play the winner of the match between British number one Heather Watson and Ksenia Pervak next. Fifth seed Angelique Kerber was also hardly troubled as she breezed past Lucie Hradecka 6-3 6-1.

The German, however, claimed the match was harder than the scoreline suggested, saying: "She's a tough opponent and you need to be ready for the whole match because she's playing the ball very hard and deep in the court. I was just trying to move well and play my game. I'm happy that I won in two sets."

Li Na, a finalist here two years ago, had to hit back from 5-3 down in the second set to complete a 6-2 7-5 success against Olga Govortsova. Julia Goerges, the 18th seed, also advanced early on day three but there were two surprises.

Dominika Cibulkova, the 15th-seeded Slovakian, was stunned 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 by Russian qualifier Valeria Savinykh while number 23 Klara Zakopalova won just one game against Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens.

There was more Melbourne misery for home favourite Sam Stosur. The ninth seed has never been past the fourth round here, but ought to have beaten Chinese Zheng Jie.

Stosur led 5-2 in the final set only to throw it away and go out 6-4 1-6 7-5.

There were no such problems for Maria Sharapova, though, as the Russsian recorded her second consecutive 6-0 6-0 win to power through to round three.

The second seed was far too strong for Japan's Misaki Doi as she proved again the collarbone injury suffered before Christmas was behind her.