Sania Mirza [Images] bowed out of the Birmingham DFS Classic women's singles on Wednesday.

The Indian ace was shown the door by eighth seed Mara Santangelo of Italy [Images] in the second round after losing 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(6).

In an upset of sorts, Ayumi Morita shocked seventh seeded fellow-Japanese Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 to advance to the third round.

There was no difficulty though for Maria Sharapova [Images] and Jelena Jankovic. Both made smooth starts to their grasscourt season, cruising into the third round.

Top seed and world number two Sharapova returned to her favourite surface with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Lilia Osterloh of the United States in the second round, after a first-round bye.

Second seed Jankovic, like Sharapova a beaten semi-finalist at Roland Garros last week, disposed of Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4, 6-1 at the Wimbledon warm-up tournament.

Sharapova beat Jankovic in the final at Birmingham two years ago. The Russian also won the title in 2004 just before sealing her first Grand Slam tournament win at Wimbledon.

Serb Jankovic has become one of the most talked about players this year after a consistent run of results, including three singles titles, that has propelled her up to third in the world rankings.

• Complete tennis coverage
• All you want to know about Sania Mirza