Serena Williams, Li Na advance into Rogers Cup quarter-finals

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Serena Williams, Li Na advance into Rogers Cup quarter-finals

By Phoebe Ho (Xinhua) 08:29, August 09, 2013

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World No. 1 and top seed Serena Williams breezed into the Rogers Cup quarter-finals after a stunning 6-0, 6-3 victory Thursday against Belgium's 13th-seeded Kirsten Flipkens in the Canadian city of Toronto, while China's Li Na fought her way into the quarter-finals.

Williams, a two-time Rogers Cup champion, who received a bye in the first round and nabbed a 6-3, 6-2 win against Italy's Francesca Schiavone Wednesday night, met Flipkens for the first time on the court.

She dominated the entire match against Flipkens, who had ousted her sister Venus in the first round earlier this week.

"I definitely thought about Venus, and I thought about what a great comeback Kirsten had, so I thought that I'm not going to get overconfident and she's obviously a really good player," William told reporters. "So I was just trying to stay focused as well as intense, I really wanted to stay intense at that moment."

It was an easy win for Williams, who took the first set in under 30 minutes, leaving Flipkens no room to catch a break as she scrambled to return the 198-km serves Williams was throwing her way.

Sending aggressive thundering missiles into Flipkens court the entire match, Williams ceased control and launched a major attack in the second set, setting Flipkens back in five love games.

"She wasn't able to play her game as much as she wanted to," she admitted. "And yeah when you play such a high ranked player you have to go in there with the mindset to do the best you can before they could step all over you."

But Williams, who always demands the best of her own game, appeared frustrated in the second set, yelling out twice when she was leading 5-2.

"I wasn't really happy with the way I was returning, I made a lot of unforced errors on the returns," said Williams. "I just wanted to hit more returns."

Williams is up against Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova in the quarter-finals, after Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli had to pull out of their third-round match early on Thursday due to injury.

The French player ended the second set of her third-round match against Rybarikova, who was leading 7-6 (5), 1-0, early because of an abdominal injury.

Prior to Williams' match, China's only Grand Slam champion Li Na -- seeded 4th in the event -- was on the brink of defeat when she launched an aggressive attack against Serbia's Ana Ivanovic to earn her way into the quarter-finals by 6-3, 1-6, 6 (5)-7.

China's only Grand Slam winner was off to a mediocre start in the first set, making a string of mistakes that left her trying to catch up to Ivanovic.

But the tables turned in the second set, with Li picking up momentum as a frustrated Ivanovic made a series of unforced errors -- a total of nine double faults in the match -- that ultimately cost her the set by a devastating 6-1.

Li, who again was down early in the third set by 3-0, launched an impressive comeback to break even at 5-5, and then won the set, driving the match into a nail-biting tie-break.

She will face off in the quarter-finals against Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova.

Earlier in the day, Polish player Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 3 seed and No. 4 on the WTA list, defeated Aussie Open semi-finalist Sloane Stephens with a 6-1, 7-6 (2) victory. Radwanska earned her quarter-finals match in a tie-break.

Radwanska spared no time in the first set to take an early 3-0 lead, with Stephens offering up little resistance, yielding 6-1 to Radwanska, who's beat her twice on the courts before.

The 20-year-old retaliated in the second set and took the first two games with ease. Radwanska caught up and broke even at 4-4, with Stephens battling furiously to maintain her lead.