Venus Into Hong Kong Quarterfinals
Venus Williams cruised into the quarterfinals of the Hong Kong Tennis Open on Thursday, steamrolling Yafan Wang 6-0, 6-2 in a little over an hour.
The third-seeded American came out swinging and made sure she would not be on the court long. She won the first seven games of the match, and despite Wang getting a break back in the second set, Venus was just too tough, dropping two games in the entire match.
“It was more straightforward than my first match, but it’s never easy—your opponents never give you the match, you have to earn every single point,” said Venus. “I’m happy with my mentality going into it—being aggressive, being in control of the point. And now I’m in the next round so I’m happy.”
Venus capitalized on six of her 11 break point opportunities, and saved three of four break points on her own serve to move past Wang.
Up next is eight-seeded Alize Cornet of France, who had to fight back from a set down to beat Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-4.
Cornet, who has beaten Venus’ sister Serena the last three times they played, has never beaten Venus in four chances.
“We haven’t played that often—we’ve played a handful of times, and usually quite a lot of space in between each time,” said Venus. “She had a long match today, and doubles too, and that can go either way. You can be a little fatigued, or you can have a lot of rhythm from playing so many balls, so it’s going to be tough.”
Second-seed Angelique Kerber of Germany had no problems in her second-round match Thursday, routing Kurumi Nara 6-2, 6-2. Kerber will take on seventh-seed Caroline Garcia of France next. Garcia cruised past Anastasiya Komardina 6-0, 6-2.
