Maria Sharapova declared herself free from the worry of a forearm injury after charging into the Australian Open third round.
The fifth seeded Russian had to pull out of the lead-up Brisbane International with a sore left forearm but was in full flight in a 6-2 6-1 rout of unseeded Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, the early match at the Rod Laver Arena.
"Yeah, I feel pretty good. I felt I was more confident with my left hand today," Sharapova, runner-up last year to Serena Williams, told reporters.
"That's always something that - especially when it's like in the hand-wrist area - it's in the back of your mind even though you're feeling it.
"I felt really good and confident today about it."
Maria Sharapova cruises into the 3rd round #AusOpen https://t.co/vV2QkCvJ70
— Australian Open (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2016
Long a baseline blaster rather than an all-court player with a delicate touch, the five-times grand slam champion had enough comfort against Sasnovich to launch a few drop-shots from the baseline, with mixed results.
Sharapova said she had been working on mixing up her game, which some pundits have seen as too one-dimensional to beat top seed Williams, who has long dominated the Russian.
"When I'm aggressive and I have depth on my shots, it's just good to have that variety to bring (players) in, to move forward myself," said Sharapova, who next faces American Lauren Davis.
"I mean, I had a couple of good (drop-shots), I had a couple of really crappy ones. I'd say it was pretty mediocre today.
"It's actually something that I had to add, because I was getting really frustrated losing to my hitting partner all the time.
"He just stood so far back behind the baseline, I was like, just can't handle him beating me so often.
"I have to just change things around. That's kind of when I started getting into that a little bit.
"He was a little surprised (laughter). But it started working, so that was good."
Serena Williams expects her sister Venus to be back at Melbourne Park next year for a 17th crack at winning the Open, the American world number one said.
Venus, 35, was fined $5,000 for not talking to the media after her surprise first round loss to Britain's Johanna Konta on Tuesday.
Serena, who cruised past Hsieh Su-wei into the third round on day three, said she had been watching television when her sister lost but had no reason to believe it would be the seven-time grand slam champion's Melbourne farewell.
"From what I assume, yeah, but I don't really know," said the defending champion when asked if her sister would be back.
"I would assume. She's never mentioned anything about not being here, not competing."
"She's never mentioned anything about not being here, not competing"
Six-times Melbourne Park champion Serena, who is also playing her 16th Australian Open, said having family around on the tour was a real bonus.
"Having someone there that understands the joy, the highs, the lows, the pain, is unique," she added. "It's not often in sport, but when it does happen, it is really something special."
Serena said she would be tapping up her sister for information about her next opponent, world number 69 Daria Kasatkina.
The Russian teenager, playing as a wildcard, upset Venus in three sets in the opening round of the Auckland Classic warm-up tournament two weeks ago.
"I don't think it's gonna be easy," she said. "Any time someone is beating Venus they are more than likely playing really good.
"So I definitely will be ready for that. I obviously will ask Venus what she thought of the match, and I'm sure (coach) Patrick (Mouratoglou) will know everything about her match and stuff. He's really good at studying."
Former golden girl Eugenie Bouchard's hopes of rehabilitation at the tournament came to a swift end as wily Agnieszka Radwanska sent the Canadian spinning out of the tournament with a 6-4 6-2 defeat in the second round.
The 21-year-old Bouchard (above), whose career hit the buffers last year following her break-out 2014 season when she reached the Wimbledon final, crumbled under the lights of Rod Laver Arena after sprinting into a 4-2 lead in the first set.
She lost six straight games to gift the set and an early break in the second to the Polish fourth seed, and was then powerless to mount a challenge as her forehand misfired and the errors started piling up.
Staring down the barrel at 5-2, Bouchard was presented with one last chance to rally, having prised three break-points as Radwanska (below) served for the match.
But the 37th-ranked Canadian squandered them all in a run of four unforced errors, capitulating meekly at the tournament that was the springboard for her sensational 2014.
"I definitely felt in control at that moment ... You can't ever back off her and give her a chance to breathe," Bouchard explained to reporters about her failure to capitalise on such an encouraging start in the night session match.
Twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was sent tumbling out in the second round by Daria Gavrilova (below), stunned 6-4 6-4 by the 21-year-old local.
The Czech sixth seed, a semi-finalist at Melbourne Park four years ago, made 35 unforced errors and was broken five times in the 89-minute contest, to the delight of the partisan crowd on Margaret Court Arena.
Kvitova rallied to save a match point and break back for 5-4 in the final set but Gavrilova claimed the victory when the world number seven went long with a forehand in the next game.
Moscow-born Gavrilova, who paired up with Nick Kyrgios to win the Hopman Cup for Australia at the start of the year, will play France's Kristina Mladenovic in her first trip to the third round at a grand slam.
