Williams coasts in 1st round of Taiwan Open

Posted February 10, 2016 6:00 am

The Associated Press

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (AP) - Top-seeded Venus Williams had a 6-3, 6-2 win over Taiwanese wildcard Lee Pei-chi in her opening match at the Taiwan Open on Wednesday.

"It was exciting to compete against a local player - the crowd were super involved and made things exciting," Williams said. "The first round is never easy so I'm really happy to now be advancing and hopefully play better and better with every game."

Williams broke her opponent's serve three times in the match that lasted just 57 minutes. The seven-time major winner, a surprise first-round loser at the Australian Open last month, next faces Urszula Radwanska of Poland.

"It'll be a little bit different from today - she plays with a little bit more top spin - so I'm going to need to have a different strategy," Williams said.

In second-round matches, Elizaveta Kulichkova of Russia defeated fourth-seeded Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals. Third-seeded Yulia Putintseva advanced with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-0 win over Japanese qualifier Miyu Kato.

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