Australia’s Samantha Stosur has eased her way into the third round of the WTA event in Miami with a straight-sets victory over Kiki Bertens from The Netherlands.

The former US Open champion swept aside the Dutch qualifier 6-3 6-2 in one hour and 12 minutes on Wednesday afternoon.

She will next meet either 21st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or American Coco Vandeweghe.

It was 16th seed Stosur’s first match of the tournament after being had been awarded a bye into the second round.

But she faces a tough road ahead, with a projected fourth-round match-up against world No.1 Serena Williams.

The victory follows the 32-year-old’s third-round exit from the Indian Wells Masters, where she was beaten by Italian veteran Flavia Pennetta – the eventual winner of the event.

Meanwhile, on the doubles courts, fellow Australians Casey Dellacqua and Ash Barty fell 7-6 3-6 10-8 to another Aussie, Anastasia Rodionova, and her Russian partner Alla Kudryavtseva.