Serena Williams crushed Russia's Daria Gavrilova 6-2 6-1 at the Qatar Open, while Maria Sharapova joined her in the third round.
Williams, who is seeded second in Doha, defeated the Russian ranked 158 spots below her in just 54 minutes, while third seed Sharapova overcame France's Caroline Garcia 6-3 6-2.
With her renowned power, Williams lost just three points on her first serve, although the 31-year-old American did show some uncharacteristic nerves when serving out against Gavrilova.
At 5-1 up in the second set, Williams went 0-40 down on serve, although she had to save three break points to force deuce before denying Gavrilova a break on two more occasions before eventually claiming the match at her third opportunity.
Sharapova generally found it tougher against world number 172 Garcia, having to withstand a first-set flurry from the French 19-year-old.
Having jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set, Sharapova was broken by Garcia with the Frenchwoman fighting back to 4-3 before the world number three Russian closed out the set.
Sharapova then completed successive breaks on Garcia's serve late in the second set to triumph 6-3 6-2 in one hour and 16 minutes.
Fifth seed Angelique Kerber was dumped out of the tournament by fellow German Mona Barthel 6-1 6-2.
Kerber struggled on serve during the match, only winning 43 percent of her first service points and dishing up four double faults against an opponent ranked 32nd in the world.
Meanwhile in first-round action at the WTA Premier event, French ninth seed Marion Bartoli defeated Italy's Francesca Schiavone 7-5 (7-5) 6-3, while the 11th seed from Russia, Nadia Petrova, eliminated Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic 6-2 6-3.
Other seeds to advance were Italy's Roberta Vinci (15th), Sloan Stephens of the USA (16th) and Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic (17th).
Vinci qualified for the second round after Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium retired at 6-2 2-1 down, while Safarova defeated Greece's Eleni Daniilidou 6-2 6-3 and Stephens won 6-2 6-2 against Georgia's Anna Tatishvili.
However, 12th seed Maria Kirilenko was forced to retire from her match when trailing fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 0-3 in the first set.
Daniela Hantuchova knocked off Laura Robson 6-4 6-1, Sorana Cirstea triumphed 2-6 6-3 6-0 over Ons Jabeur, Monica Niculescu eliminated Jelena Jankovic 6-4 6-1 and Urszula Radwanska cruised past Nadiya Kichenok 6-1 6-0.
Other first-round winners were Timea Babos, Christina McHale, Ekaterina Makarova, Su-Wei Hsieh, Klara Zakopalova and Romina Oprandi.