Warsaw [Poland], July 28 : Women's World No.1 Iga Swiatek cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over American Claire Liu to book a spot in the quarterfinals of the Warsaw Open while Czech No.2 seed Karolina Muchova suffered an upset by Slovak qualifier Rebecca Sramkova 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
With a victory over Liu that lasted one hour and 37 minutes, Swiatek improved to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in head-to-head encounters with Liu this year.
Swiatek won five games in a row after the American held serve to open the match. Additionally, she took the opening four games of the second set.
In eight sets versus Liu this year, Swiatek has only lost nine games. (They were supposed to compete in the Miami Open's second round, but Swiatek withdrew.)
Swiatek will next play eighth-seeded Linda Noskova, who defeated Viktoria Hruncakova in the second round by scores of 6-3, 6-3. The only players that were seeded to advance to the quarterfinals were Swiatek and Noskova.
Second seed Muchova, who is rated number 18 in the world, lost to qualifier Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 after she missed four match points and a 5-1 lead in the third set.
Ever since coming in second place to Swiatek at Roland Garros, Muchova has had difficulty.
At Wimbledon, she was defeated by German world No. 103 Jule Niemeier in the opening round.
Elsewhere, the Hamburg European Open's breakthrough star this week has been Noma Noha Akugue, and the 19-year-old wild card added to the narrative by defeating Martina Trevisan by scores of 5-7, 6-4, and 7-5 to advance to the semifinals.
"I'm feeling good, I'm also proud. I'm happy with my efforts today. It was emotional for me today and I just tried to fight and fight to the end," WTA.com quoted Noma Noha Akugue as saying.
Noha Akugue will next face another fast-rising 19-year-old in Diana Shnaider.
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