Australian Open: Maria Sharapova beats Sasnovich to enter third round - Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova advanced into the Australian Open third round, sweeping past Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich with the loss of just three games.

Though, playing with a sore left forearm, Sharapova was in full flight in a 6-2 6-1 rout of unseeded Belarusian.

She had enough comfort against Sasnovich to launch a few drop-shots from the baseline, with mixed results.

Following her victory, Sharapova said she had been working on mixing up her game, which some analysts have seen as too one-dimensional to beat top seed Serena Williams, who has long dominated the Russian.