That wannabe songstress Venus Williams was hitting no bum notes in yesterday's press conference, writes Johnny Watterson.

The American had just held Hana Sromova to two games in each set of her second-round match and a journalist had the temerity to ask whether she deserved the same prize money as the men, given the relative time they spend on court.

Yesterday Williams won 6-2, 6-2; 11th seed Nadia Petrova beat Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-2; second seed Maria Sharapova defeated Severine Bremond 6-0, 6-3; and the sixth seed, Ana Ivanovic, bundled out Meilen Tu 6-4, 6-3.

Petrova, Sharapova and Ivanovic were on court for a combined three hours and 45 minutes, or just six minutes longer than it took Feliciano Lopez to beat Tim Henman in the second round of the men's singles.

"Did you really just ask me that?" answered the outraged Williams. "I think I've been through that the last three years now and I really don't want to go through it right now.

"You should definitely see the merit in people getting paid or being treated equal as people, not on sex."

This year Wimbledon have agreed to pay equal prize money to the men and women, having finally come into line with the other three Grand Slams. But someone else also pointed out that tennis is the entertainment business and Frank Sinatra was never paid by the minute.

But Venus, playing in chunky jewellery, shorts and a large pendant, has also aims to muscle in on Sinatra territory.

"I just love music. I play the guitar. Nowadays all you have to have is a computer and if you know a new chord you can speed it up to what tempo you want and there you are. I guess I'd like to write, probably pop."

That seems to be as simple as the way she plays her tennis. Hit it hard and overpower the opponent.

Sromova fell easily. The 29-year-old - who has never won a tour singles title, is ranked 170 in the world and cites her most memorable tennis experience as travelling to India to play in a tournament - was not the sort to upset a Grand Slam champion, even if Williams is feeling her way through the early rounds of the draw.

As for Sharapova, she had a good first set that lasted only 20 minutes but started to bang the ball around the place in the second as the wind, as it had been doing for most of the day, gusted in different directions around the roofless Centre Court.

The former winner here hit 11 unforced errors in that 51-minute stretch before falling over the line and into round three.

"It's like someone took off the torch from the Statue of Liberty," said Sharapova. "It's like they took the arch from the Arc de Triomphe. It's my favourite court to play on but it's definitely so weird. It's missing that little touch, missing that something that I think all the players love to see. It's not just the roof; it's the whole feeling of it."

At the end of the day, Amelie Mauresmo continued along the same path as those other seeds and took just 54 minutes to reach the third round.

The Austrian Yvonne Meusburger took just three games from the match, one in the first set and two in the second, off the defending champion. The 27-year-old fourth seed put huge pressure on her opponent's serve.

Meusburger won only 35 per cent of her first-serve points compared to a return of 77 per cent for Mauresmo.