Former world number one Sharapova battled past Ekaterina Makarova in three sets 6-3 3-6 6-1 in 1 hour and 49 minutes. The eighth seed was in impressive form on serve and was broken just once throughout the match, winning 12 of 13 service games.

"When I lost that second set I told myself it wasn't over. I won the first set and did some things right so I went back to that," said Sharapova. "There weren't many breaks in the match and it was important to be more aggressive. She likes to be the first one to hit the ball; I wanted to take that away from her."

The Russian will now play Dominika Cibulkova in the third round.

Second seed Vera Zvonareva was also made to work against Elena Vesnina before claiming her place in the third round here in Madrid. Zvonareva recovered from losing the first set 0-6 in just 21 minutes to defeat her fellow Russian 0-6 6-3 6-3.

Aranxta Parra Santonja of Spain produced the biggest shock of the day, defeating 13th seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-2 7-6 (7-5).

In the day's other second round match Victoria Azarenka defeated Sofia Arvidsson 6-1 6-1 and will go on to play Parra Santonja in the next round.