US Open: Serena Williams eases into third round as Ana Ivanovic suffers shock early exit

World number one Serena Williams eased past her compatriot Vania King in straight sets to record her 80th US Open win on Thursday to enter the third round of US Open, but former world number one Ana Ivanovic became the second top 10 seed to suffer a shock early exit.

Williams, chasing a third successive New York title, her sixth in total and an 18th major, fired 25 winners past King to win 6-1, 6-0, wrapping up victory on a windswept Arthur Ashe Stadium in just 56 minutes.

It was Williams' second win over an American at the tournament this week after beating teenager Taylor Townsend and next she will face another in Varvara Lepchenko for a place in the last 16, Sport24 reported.

The top seed said that it is so hard to play in the wind but she is happy to get through a solid match with the conditions. She added that it wasn't easy, but one has to be able to adjust.

Williams, who came into the US Open without a major this year but with five tour titles, said that she had fun out here, adding that she enjoys playing out on Arthur Ashe court.

Meanwhile, Ivanovic, the eighth seed, lost 7-5, 6-4 to the 42nd-ranked Pliskova who has reached the third round at a major for the first time. The Serb followed fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska out of the tournament after Peng Shuai had beaten the Pole 24 hours earlier.

The former French Open champion was undone on Thursday by 29 unforced errors while facing 13 break points as she crashed to her earliest exit in New York in six years.

Ivanovic, whose summer build-up had included a runners-up spot behind Williams at Cincinnati, said that it is very disappointing, and added that it is never easy to finish this early. She said that she is definitely going to assess what went wrong and what she can work on.

Ivanovic's fellow former world number one Victoria Azarenka, the runner-up to Williams for the past two years, made it to third round, winning nine games in succession from 0-3 down to defeat Christine McHale of the United States 6-3, 6-2.

Azarenka said that McHale started really well and was hitting her targets. She added that she was on the back foot but eventually got her momentum.

The United States only saw three men making the second round, the country's lowest total in the history of the tournament, but 13th seed John Isner and Sam Querrey have made it to the last 32.

Isner, a quarter-finalist in 2011, beat Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-2 while Querrey beat Spain's Guillermo Garcia Lopez for the fourth time in four meetings, including last week's Winston Salem warm-up, thanks to a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory.

Japanese 10th seed Kei Nishikori, whose best run is a fourth round appearance in 2008, progressed when Spanish opponent Pablo Andujar retired at 6-4, 6-1 down.

French wildcard Michael Llodra was also forced to quit after dropping the first set against German 22nd seed Philipp Kohlschreiber.

French ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also progressed with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win against Kazakhstan's Aleksandr Nedovyesov.

Later Thursday, men's top seed Novak Djokovic, the 2011 champion who has reached the last four finals, eased into the third round with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 win over veteran French player Paul-Henri Mathieu whose only win in six meetings against the Serb came back in 2006, the report added.