HONG KONG: Top seed Sabine Lisicki kept her cool on a searing night to power past Grace Min 6-1, 6-1 and into the Hong Kong Open quarter-finals here on Wednesday.

Lisicki had spent almost two-and-a-half sapping hours on court the previous night in getting past Romania’s Monica Niculescu in three sets, but was in a big hurry 24 hours later.

The German sealed the second-round victory over her American opponent in just 40 minutes as the mercury nudged 33 degrees celsius under the Victoria Park floodlights.

“Last night was a tough match,” said Lisicki. “I eventually found my rhythm and I was able to take that into today.”

The world number 31 will now have a day off before playing China’s Zheng Sasai on Friday for a place in the last four after Zheng ousted the number six seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium in the biggest upset of the day.

Wickmayer is ranked 62, 40 places above her Chinese opponent, but she became the third of eight seeded players to fall in the inaugural $250,000 WTA event.

Former French Open champion Italy’s Francesca Schiavone reached the quarter-finals when her veteran opponent, 44-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan, was forced to retire at 4-0 down in the second set with a shoulder injury. Schiavone had taken the first 6-3.

Earlier, second seed Daniela Hantuchova completed the first-round action by brushing aside local wildcard Zhang Ling 6-1, 6-4.

VENUS IN SECOND ROUND

QUEBEC CITY: US top seed Venus Williams advanced to the second round of the WTA tournament at Quebec City with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph over Canada’s Francoise Abanda here on Tuesday.

The 19th-ranked American, coming off a third-round exit at the US Open, connected on only 59 per cent of her first serves but won three-quarters of those points, including five aces, on the way to dispatching her 17-year-old rival in 85 minutes.

Next in the path of the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion will be Ukraine’s 242nd-ranked Olga Savchuk, who defeated Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski 6-3, 7-5 to reach the second round of a WTA event for the first time this season.

Venus seeks her 46th career WTA crown and her second of the year after winning at Dubai.

The 34-year-old elder sister of world number one Serena Williams, who won her 18th Grand Slam title Sunday at the US Open, has claimed only two WTA titles since 2010, a year before she was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, which can cause fatigue and dizziness.

French third seed Kristina Mladenovic advanced by beating Britain’s Naomi Broady 6-4, 7-5 while Czech Lucie Hradecka ousted Portugal’s sixth-seeded Michelle Larcher De Brito 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2014