Australia’s women’s No.1 Daria Gavrilova has continued her US Open preparations with a straight-sets win over Kirsten Flipkens at the Connecticut Open.

Gavrilova beat the world No.76 6-2 6-4 for a first career victory over Belgium’s Flipkens, who had won the pair’s only previous meeting.

The Russian-born Australian will next face the winner of world No.10 Agnieszka Radwanksa and China’s Shuai Peng.

“After the first set I looked at the stats and saw I saved six break points and thought ‘oooh, that’s pretty good’,” Gavrilova said.

“My plan was to be aggressive. She’s a very tricky player. I got fired up the second set.”

Gavrilova is yet to win a match at the US Open, which begins on Monday, where she was eliminated at the first hurdle in 2015 and 2016, and is still chasing a maiden WTA title.

She made the final in Strasbourg in May, where she lost to Samantha Stosur, the player she usurped as Australia’s top-ranked woman the following month.

In Thursday’s other early quarter-final Elise Mertens of Belgium beat China’s Shuai Zhang in a walkover.