All four seeded players in action in Hong Kong safely navigated their way into the quarter finals. Venus Williams was once again relentless as she took just 63 minutes to take care of Wang Yafan by 6-0, 6-2, and thereby reaching her seventh quarter finals of the season.
She will next face Alize Cornet, who she has beaten in all four of their meetings, but who, funnily enough, has defeated sister Serena in their last three clashes. The number 8 seed struggled the most to book her place in the last eight as she had to battle back from a set down to knock out Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.
The top seed in action today was number two Angelique Kerber, who proved too powerful on the hard courts of Hong Kong for Kurumi Nara, annihilating the Japanese player 6-2, 6-2. The German will now face Caroline Garcia who brushed past lucky loser Anastasiya Komardina 6-0, 6-2.
With just one week of tournaments to go until qualification for Singapore is decided, Venus Williams now has her destiny in her own hands. With Safarova losing in the first round in Linz, the American could potentially climb all the way to sixth in the race if she wins in Hong Kong, depending on Radwanska’s performance in Tianjin.
