Venus advances again

Top-seeded Venus Williams overpowered Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the Taiwan Open quarterfinals Thursday. Williams converted five of seven break-point chances against the unseeded Radwanska. Williams was a surprise first-round loser at the Australian Open last month, but appears to have regained the form that allowed the seven-time major winner to return to the top 10 late last year. Williams will be playing Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia for the first time in the quarterfinals. In other second-round matches, No. 2-seeded Misaki Doi of Japan beat Magda Linette of Poland 6-2, 6-3, and Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland upset fifth-seeded Zheng Saisai of China 6-4, 6-4.

Third-seeded Donald Young beat Marcel Granollers 6-1, 7-6 (2) in the second round of the Memphis Open on Thursday. Young was the only seeded player to win in the afternoon matches as seventh-seeded John Millman of Australia lost to Germany’s Benjamin Becker, while Ricardes Berankis of Lithuania ousted No. 8 seed Damir Dzumhur of Boznia and Herzegovina. Berankis won 6-3, 6-4, and Becker survived a tiebreaker in a 6-2, 7-6 (6) victory. In an all-American night match, second-seeded Steve Johnson faced wild-card entry Taylor Fritz.

Eighth-seeded Viktor Troicki made the quarterfinals of the World Tennis Tournament by defeating Hyeon Chung of South Korea 7-6 (5), 6-2 on Thursday. Troicki, runner-up in the Sofia Open last weekend, will take on qualifier Nicolas Mahut for a place in the semifinals. Mahut saved all seven break points he faced, and broke big-serving Jeremy Chardy once to post a 7-5, 6-2 victory in an all-French match at the indoor tournament. Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut won 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 against Czech player Jiri Vesely, and plays Martin Klizan in the quarters after the 43rd-ranked Slovak defeated Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 6-2.

David Ferrer of Spain and Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas have reached the quarterfinals of the Argentina Open at Buenos Aires. Second-seeded Ferrer defeated Argentina’s Renzo Olivo 6-2, 6-2 on Thursday, and Cuevas beat Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-4, 6-2. Four players reached the quarterfinals on Wednesday: Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, Dominic Thiem of Austria, Nicolas Almagro of Spain, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. Top-seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain faced Juan Monaco of Argentina in a late match Thursday, and Italian Paolo Lorenzi played Diego Schwartzman of Argentina for a place in the final eight.

Top-seed Belinda Bencic overcame serving issues to defeat Annika Beck of Germany 7-6 (3), 6-3 at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday. Bencic was broken four times in a chaotic first set in which she recorded six double faults, including one on break point that allowed Beck to serve for the set at 6-5. However, the Swiss recovered to break Beck and dominate both the resulting tiebreak and second set. Bencic, who had a first-round bye, next plays a quarterfinal against either fifth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia or Carina Witthoeft of Germany. Earlier, Hungary’s Timea Babos defeated ninth-seeded Monica Niculescu of Romania 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in her second-round match.