Sublime Serena Williams coasts into Wimbledon third round

Defending champion Serena Williams continued her march towards a sixth Wimbledon title with a routine 6-3 6-2 second-round win over French teenager Caroline Garcia.

Top seed Williams won the first set in 30 minutes on No 1 Court against the 19-year-old Garcia who put up more of a fight than expected.

The 31-year-old American, who beat Garcia en route to winning the French Open earlier this month, easily wrapped up victory against the world number 100 to take her unbeaten run to 33 matches.

Williams, a 16-times Grand Slam winner, will next face Japan’s 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm.

China's Li Na snapped out of a mid-match meltdown to beat in-form Romanian Simona Halep and reach the third round.

The 31-year-old former French Open champion went through the motions as she surrendered the second set meekly but recovered to win a curious match 6-2 1-6 6-0 on a muggy Court Three.

Halep, who had won 11 consecutive matches coming into Wimbledon, needed an injury time-out for treatment on her back at the end of the first set and the break seemed to rattle Li who committed a rash of errors in a woeful second set.

With coach Carlos Rodriguez watching on sternly, Li buckled down again and streaked ahead in the decider thanks to some heavy groundstrokes.

The sixth seed, whose best run at Wimbledon was the quarter-finals in 2006 and 2010, will face either Germany's Annika Beck or Czech Klara Zakopalova in the third round.