Gavrilova to face Kerber in Hong Kong

Eighth-seeded Australian Daria Gavrilova has reached the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open, completing a rain-interrupted second-round match with a 6-2 7-5 win over Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.

On court after rain interrupted play Gavrilova finished off a tight second set to earn a last-eight berth against top seed and Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.

World No.1 Kerber finished off a rain-interrupted match from 24 hours earlier with the German booking a spot in the last-eight 6-2 3-6 6-2 over American Louisa Chirico.

The two-time grand slam winner did have a late niggle, losing serve as she tried to close out the win, which barely took 20 minutes at the second time of asking.

Chirico broke for 2-5 with an overhead to extend the contest but Kerber answered a game later with a break-back which spelled the end.

‘It’s not so easy having so much time in between,” Kerber said.

“But I’m happy with my performance and glad that I closed it out.

“This is not the first rain delay for me, playing was even better than a practise session. I was able to play a few games prior to tomorrow. It’s tough to play someone for the first time – I just went out to win and play my game.”

Alize Cornet came up a winner after six defeats by Venus Williams, knocking out the second seed 6-2 3-6 6-2.

Britain’s world No.10 Johanna Konta will lose valuable ground in the points race to the Singapore year-end event this month after withdrawing from her second-round match with an abdominal strain.

The third seed, who played the Beijing final at the weekend, handed over a place in the quarters to China’s Wang Qiang.

Sydney-born Konta, first British woman in three decades to reach the WTA top 10, currently holds the eighth and final provisional Singapore qualifying spot.

But she is threatened by Slovak Dominika Cibulkova, currently playing this week in Linz, Austria and trailing by only 10 points.

“I was really looking forward to making this week last as long as possible.” Konta said, “It wasn’t as long as I would have liked, but I need to look after my body first.”

Bethanie Mattek-Sands recovered to defeat French sixth seed Caroline Garcia 4-6, 6-2 6-4.

France’s Kristina Mladenovic defeated Japan’s Nao Hibino 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.

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