AUCKLAND: Coco Gauff used her dominant serve and superb defense to defeat Brenda Fruhvirtova on Thursday at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.
Gauff overwhelmed her Czech opponent, winning 85 per cent of the points on her first serve, compared to 50 per cent for Fruhvirtova. Gauff also capitalised on five of six break points in the 70-minute match.
The top seed and defending tournament champion, Gauff will meet No. 8 Varvara Gracheva in the quarterfinals. Gracheva, of France, topped Lulu Sun of Switzerland in straight sets to advance.
No. 2 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine had a tougher time against Great Britain's Emma Raducanu in a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3), 6-1 win that lasted two hours, 52 minutes. Svitolina fired 11 aces and double-faulted just three times, compared to six of each for Raducanu.
Also moving to the quarterfinals were Croatia's Petra Martic, who dropped China's Yue Yuan 6-2, 6-2.
BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL
Top seeds Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan advanced to the quarterfinals with identical 6-1, 6-0 victories in Australia.
No. 1 Sabalenka topped No. 15 Lin Zhu of China in 69 minutes, and No. 2 Rybakina took out No. 13 Elise Mertens of Belgium in less than an hour. Rybakina won 56 of 84 points and broke Mertens' serve five times.
Russians Mirra Andreeva and No. 11 Anastasia Potapova also moved to the quarterfinals.
Andreeva topped Australian Arina Rodionova 6-1, 6-1. Potopova eliminated No. 6 seed Veronika Kudermetova 7-5, 6-7 (7), 6-4 match that lasted three hours, 22 minutes.
No. 3 seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia needed three sets to oust No. 16 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Also moving to the quarterfinals were No. 5 Daria Kasatkina of Russia and No. 8 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. --Field Level Media