Seeds shine ahead of Paris

The big guns of tennis look to be hitting form at the right time on clay in the Rome Masters, with the French Open looming large.

Following Novak Djokovic' stylish win on Tuesday, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer also breezed into in their third round, beating Florian Mayer and Carlos Berlocq respectively in straight sets.
Nadal will now face compatriot Marcel Granollers who defeated home favourite Fabio Fognini while Federer's opponent in the fourth round will be 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero.
In the women's draw, the Williams sisters' fine form also continued as Venus eased past Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets while Serena needed three sets to scrape past Nadia Petrova.
Fifth seed Samantha Stosur will be Venus' opponent in the third round, following her victory over Sara Errani while Serena will meet Anabel Medina Garrigues after Caroline Wozniacki retired hurt in their clash.
In the other matches, 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic came through against Silvia Soler Espinosa to set-up perhaps the game of the day on Thursday against Maria Sharapova while there were also wins for Na Li and world number one Victoria Azarenka.
However, it wasn't all plain sailing for the favourites as third seed Agnieszka Radwanska was defeated by Petra Cetkovska in perhaps the shock of the tournament so-far.
The French open begins on May 22 when the leading lights of the men's and women's game, will hope to take winning form to Roland Garros for the second Grand Slam of the year, making the remainder of the tournament in Rome a fascinating contest.