San Francisco: Top seed Venus Williams fended off a spirited challenge in her opening match against World No.87 Magda Linette at the WTA Tour’s Stanford tournament on Wednesday as she needed three sets to advance. Former two-time champion Venus defeated Linette 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of the hardcourt tournament at Stanford University.
The 36-year-old Venus is hoping she doesn’t suffer a post-Wimbledon letdown and she now has an easy path to the semi-finals since her next opponent won’t be ranked in the top 200 in the world. Venus will face either Catherine Bellis, who is ranked 203rd, or Sachia Vickery who is one spot back of Bellis in the world rankings. In other matches, fifth seeded Misaki Doi showed no mercy against her Japanese doubles partner Nao Hibino, winning in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 in their second round match.
Doi, who is ranked 36th in the world, advances to the next round where she will face either second seed Dominika Cibulkova or Urszula Radwanska of Poland. Konta took care of business, beating Julia Boserup 6-3, 6-1.
