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https://scmp.com/sport/hong-kong/article/1868198/nerves-get-better-chinas-wang-yafan-against-venus-williams-hong-kong
Sport/ Hong Kong

Nerves get better of China's Wang Yafan against Venus Williams at Hong Kong Open

American powers into quarter-finals of Hong Kong Open along with Cornet, Garcia and Kerber

Venus Williams is all concentration during a one-sided romp over China's Wang Yafan, as seeded stars moved into the next stage of the Hong Kong Open. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Organisers of the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open at Victoria Park got the best result they could have hoped for yesterday as the seeded stars on show held up their end of the bargain to make it into the last eight.

Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams dominated China's Wang Yafan 6-0, 6-2 to keep her hopes of a late charge to Singapore for the end-of-season WTA Finals soirée alive.

The American took out world No 143 Wang in devastating fashion, wrapping up the match in just 63 minutes at the US$250,000 event.

In the first set she was clearly overwhelmed ... with more time and more experience against better players, she'll get used to it Venus Williams

But there were some highlights for the 21-year-old Chinese player - a gripping exchange at the net in the seventh game ended with her return dropping just on the baseline to secure a rare point and brought rapturous applause from a sympathetic centre court.

But in the main, she was overawed by a vastly superior opponent and inopportune unforced errors cost Wang on what was the biggest night so far of her short career.

Asked whether nerves affected her performance, Wang said: "I've only seen Venus on TV before … to actually play her made me very nervous and I don't think I was able to play my best tennis." 

"She's young and in the top 150 and in the second set she was spirited and decided to go for it," said Williams of her young opponent.

"In the first set she was clearly overwhelmed ... with more time and more experience against better players, she'll get used to it."

Next up for Williams is eighth-seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, who was forced to rally from a set down to make the quarter-finals after being pushed all the way by Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova.

The 25-year-old from Nice finally put an end to Shvedova's challenge after almost two and-a-half hours on centre court.

World No 43 Cornet, who was playing the Kazakh for the first time, has experienced a disappointing season this year, which has seen her world ranking slip from 20 at the end of the last campaign - her best result being a midseason run to the quarter-finals of the Katowice Open in Warsaw where she won the title last year.

She is now set to at least equal her best performance of the season.

On the prospect of meeting Cornet in the last eight, Williams said: "We've played a handful of times with a lot of space in between each time, and she had a long match today, and played doubles.

Caroline Garcia beat Russia's Anastasiya Komardina to book her place in the last eight. Photo: AFP
Caroline Garcia beat Russia's Anastasiya Komardina to book her place in the last eight. Photo: AFP

"I think she'll have developed a lot of rhythm from having played a lot of balls."

Elsewhere, Caroline Garcia became the second Frenchwoman to make the last eight as she strolled to a 6-0, 6-2 win over Russia's Anastasiya Komardina.

At 5-0 down in the second set, the 18-year-old Komardina was facing the unenviable proposition of a whitewash against the world No 35.

But to warm applause on centre court, she managed to avert that ignominy by holding serve for the first time in the match against the rampant Garcia.

Angelique Kerber of Germany returns the ball to Kurumi Nara of Japan in their second round match. Photo: AFP
Angelique Kerber of Germany returns the ball to Kurumi Nara of Japan in their second round match. Photo: AFP

After following that up with her only break of the match, her participation was brought to an end by the 21-year-old in exactly one hour.

"It's never easy to play against someone you don't know," said Garcia afterwards.

"You never know what to expect, but it was good today to win quite easily because maybe tomorrow [Friday] is going to be a big fight."

In last night's final match, Germany's Angelique Kerber, the second seed in Hong Kong this week, ended the challenge of Japan's Kurumi Nara - Zhang Ling's conqueror - 6-2, 6-2.

FRIDAY'S ORDER OF PLAY

Centre Court (starting at 3pm): Heather Watson (Britain) v  5-Samantha Stosur (Australia); 7-Caroline Garcia (France) v 2-Angelique Kerber (Germany); 3-Venus Williams (US) v 8-Alize Comet (France); 4-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) v Daria Gavrilova (Russia).

Court One (3pm): Doubles: 3-Liang Chen and Wang Yafan (Taiwan) v Chan Chin-wei and Lee Ya-hsuan (Taiwan).

Second round results: 3-Venus Williams (US) beat Wang Yafan (China) 6-0, 6-2; 7-Caroline Garcia (France) beat Anastasiya Komardina (Russia) 6-0, 6-2;  8-Alize Cornet (France) beat Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan) 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-4; 2-Angelique Kerber (Germany) beat Kurumi Nara (Japan) 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles, quarter-finals: 1-Lara Arruabarrena (Spain) and Andreja Klepac (Slovenia) beat Ki Yan-tung and Ng Man-ying (Hong Kong) 6-1, 6-0; 2-Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (Poland) and Anastasia Rodionova (Australia) beat Nicha Lertpitaksinchai and Peangtarn Plipuech (Thailand) 6-4, 6-0;  4-Alize Cornet (France) and Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan) beat Chuang Chia-jung (Taiwan) and Luksika Kumkhum (Thailand) 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).