Past winners play to form

The No. 1-ranked Sharapova saved five set points in the first set and led the second set 3-1 when play was halted on Wednesday because of darkness. She lost the first two games when the match resumed,and double-faulted on her first three service points in the tiebreaker. “It felt like two matches in a way,” Sharapova said. “Today I wanted to start off really well because I knew I was up a break. Didn’t go according to plan. Really served sloppy.”

Sharapova underwent shoulder surgery in 2008 and has been prone to double-faults,but in the final set she had no trouble with her serve — or anything else. She won 21 of the last 27 points and finished with just 11 unforced errors. Pironkova,ranked 38th,beat Venus Williams at Wimbledon each of the past two years. But Sharapova’s at her best in winner-take-all sets. She improved her record in three-set matches to 9-0 this year and 21-1 since the beginning of 2011. She has won 14 consecutive matches,including the French Open to complete a career Grand Slam.

Easy sailing

While Sharapova battled an erratic serve,with eight aces and 10 double-faults,four-time champion Serena Williams had no such trouble. She won 27 of 28 points on her first serve,including 10 aces,and never faced a break point. Czink twice whiffed on returns. “I love my serve,” Williams said,“and I love feeling good when I serve.” The sixth-seeded Williams could meet Sharapova in the final next week.

Roddick advanced to the third round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in 2012 when he beat Bjorn Phau 6-3 7-6 (1) 6-3. Roddick has struggled much of the year and he’s seeded only 30th,but he won his fifth grass-court title last week as a wild card at Eastbourne. Baker,a qualifier whose career was derailed for 6 years by injuries,is into the third round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. He beat Jarkko Nieminen 6-0 6-2 6-4.

The 20-year-old McHale advanced to the third round at her fourth consecutive Grand Slam tournament when she beat Mathilde Johansson 7-5 7-5.

Local hope

British hopeful Andy Murray faced only one break point and beat big-serving Ivo Karlovic 7-5 6-7 (5) 6-2 7-6 (4). Murray managed to deal with an all-out assault from Ivo Karlovic’s hard serve to eliminate the Croat and reach the third round. He did give the home crowd at Centre Court a brief scare when he was broken in his first service game,but held serve the rest of the way and broke Karlovic four times.

The number four seed struggled to get a handle on the Karlovic serve with 17 aces flying past him and the 2.08 metre Croat also volleyed well to frustrate Murray. He broke twice in the third set and closed out the match in a second tiebreak to advance to a third-round match against Marcos Baghdatis,who advanced when Grigor Dimitrov retired with the score 7-5 4-1.

Sara Errani committed only five unforced errors and beat Anne Keothavong of Britain 6-1 6-1. The 25-year-old Italian matched her best Wimbledon showing by advancing to the third round. Playing the day’s first match on Court 2,the 10th-seeded Errani erased all three break points she faced and won in 61 minutes. That was a grueling effort compared with Wednesday,when she played only one point to complete a victory suspended overnight because of rain.

No. 7 David Ferrer defeated Kenny de Schepper 7-6 (1) 6-2 6-4 and will next play Roddick. No. 13 Gilles Simon,who stirred debate this week when he said men should be paid more than women at tennis tournaments,lost to Xavier Malisse 6-4 6-4 7-6 (5).

Paes-Stepanek advance

Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek brushed aside the challenge of Colin Ebelthite and John Peers in straight sets to progress to the second round of the men’s doubles. The fourth seed Indo-Czech pair scored an easy 6-2 6-4 6-2 win over the unseeded Australian combination in one hour 31 minutes. Paes and Stepanek converted three of the five chances in the first set to take lead in just 25 minutes. They next face Israeli pair of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram in the second round.