MADRID, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Number one seed Serena Williams and reigning Champion, Maria Sharapova were both taken to the limit in their respective matches in the early sessions of the Madrid Masters Tennis tournament on Wednesday.
Williams needed 2 hours and 45 minutes and survived three match points against her to dispatch the former World number 1, Victoria Azarenka 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(1) who was the beaten finalist in Madrid in both 2011 and 2012.
The result only tells half of the story as Azarenka lead 40-0 on her serve in the 12th game of the final set only to hit three double faults to allow Williams to save the match.
Sharapova also needed three sets to defeat France' s Caroline Garcia, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, but will know she needs to improve her serve if she is to have the chance of repeating last year' s success.
Meanwhile number 4 seed Petra Kvitkova had things much easier and needed just one hour and eight minutes for her victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and number 5 seed Calorline Wozniacki had a comfortable win against number 9 seed Agnieska Radwanska.
Wednesday saw the top men' s seed make their debuts with number six seed Tomas Berdych defeating Richard Gasquet 7-6(3), 7-5 in a game where his big serve made the difference.
Spain' s number 7 seed, David Ferrer had an easy introduction to Madrid as he brushed past qualifier Albert Ramos Vinolas 6-4, 6-0, while Grigor Dimitov and Jo Wilfried Tsonga also progressed into the last 16.