Venus Williams wins opening match at Taiwan Open.

Top-seeded Venus Williams had a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Taiwanese wildcard Lee Pei-chi in her opening match at the Taiwan Open on Wednesday. “It was exciting to compete against a local player — the crowd was super-involved and made things exciting,” Williams said. “The first round is never easy so I’m really happy to now be advancing and hopefully play better and better with every game.” Williams broke her opponent’s serve three times in the match that lasted just 57 minutes. The seven-time major winner, a surprise first-round loser at the Australian Open last month, next faces Urszula Radwanska of Poland. In second-round matches, Elizaveta Kulichkova of Russia defeated fourth-seeded Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals. Third-seeded Yulia Putintseva advanced with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-0 victory over Japanese qualifier Miyu Kato.

Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin upset fifth-seeded Denis Kudla 6-1, 7-5 on Wednesday in the second round of the Memphis Open. Kukushkin, ranked 93rd in the world, got off to a quick start in the opening set against Kudla, the American who entered the tournament at a career-best ranking of 59th. The second set was more competitive, but Kudla was unable to overtake Kukushkin. Kukushkin will play the winner of the night match between top-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan and American Ryan Harrison. Nishikori has won the tournament the last three years. In other second-round matches, fourth-seeded Sam Querrey of the United States beat Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4, and Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka topped Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 6-1, 6-3.

Second-seeded Marin Cilic reached the World Tennis Tournament quarterfinals in Rotterdam, Netherlands, by defeating Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6 (2), 7-6 (7) in the second round on Wednesday. Neither player faced a break point in the first set, but Muller saved five in the second. Cilic had two match points at 6-4 in the tiebreak, then saved a set point at 7-6 down as Muller fought back strongly. The 2014 U.S. Open champion next plays Philipp Kohlschreiber, who won against qualifier Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-4, 6-2. The German converted four of five break-point chances, and was solid on his own — winning 75 percent of points on second serve. Meanwhile, fifth-seeded Gael Monfils of France beat Borna Coric of Croatia 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 in a match littered with 22 break-point chances. Monfils served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, then lost three consecutive games. He finally served out victory to set up a match against either countryman Gilles Simon, seeded third, or German teenager Alexander Zverev — who won their first-round matches Wednesday. In other first-round play, No. 8-seeded Viktor Troicki, Jeremy Chardy and Roberto Bautista Agut also advanced.

Fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria reached his second quarterfinals of the young season when he defeated qualifier Gastao Elias of Portugal 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-3 in the Argentina Open at Buenos Aires on Wednesday. Thiem, the youngest player in the top 20 at age 22, prevented Elias from making his first career ATP quarters. In another second-round match in the claycourt tournament, 2011 champion Nicolas Almagro of Spain beat Federico Delbonis 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, his third victory over the local hope after 2012 and 2013. Top-seeded Rafael Nadal, the defending champion, faces Juan Monaco of Argentina today in the second round.