Top seed Venus Williams required less than an hour to dismiss wildcard Lee Pei-chi 6-2,6-3, in the first round of the Taiwan Open.
Facing the world No.529 in Kaohsiung, Williams biggest test occurred at the start of the match. In her opening service game, the American had to save two break points before taking the game. After that early threat, the top seed faced no more break points as she broke Lee’s service three times in the match (once in the first set and twice in the second) to seal the win.
During her first round triumph, Williams produced five aces, won 74% of her service points and won 48% of total return points. In the last 16 Williams will play Poland’s Urszula Radwanska in what will be their fourth meeting on the WTA Tour. In their most recent meeting at the 2015 Miami Open, Williams cruised to a 6-3, 6-2, victory.
The win in Taiwan has earned Williams her first win on the tour this year after a disappointing January. In her first tournaments of 2016 the 35-year-old suffered back-to-back first round losses in Auckland against Darya Kasatkina and at the Australian Open against Johanna Konta.
As Williams played her first round match, elsewhere a group of players have already booked their place in the quarterfinals. Third seed Yulia Putintseva endured some tough early resistance from Japanese qualifier Miyu Kato before winning 6-4, 5-7, 6-0. The world No.64 converted 9/10 break point and won 55% of her service points. Putintseva will now play in her first WTA Tour quarterfinal since the Bastad Open last July. Awaiting her in the last eight will be either Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele or China’s Zheng Saisai.
Fourth seed Zarina Diyas became the highest seed to exit the tournament so far after losing 7-5, 0-6, 6-4, to Russian world No.95 Elizaveta Kulichkova. The loss is a bitter disappointment for Diyas, who lead 4-2 in the final set before the Russian claimed four consecutive games to win the match.
