Top seeds Venus Williams and Dominika Cibulkova eased past their respective opponents to march on to the semi-finals of the WTA Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.
Venus, the No. 1 seed, brought fellow American CiCi Bellis’ dream run to an end with a 6-4 6-1 conquest of the 17-year-old in the battle that lasted exactly an hour.
Venus, who reached the Wimbledon final earlier this month, produced a powerful brand of tennis as she converted all four break-point opportunities against her 203rd-ranked opponent.
“After Wimbledon, I was really pumped, feeling like I couldn’t wait to play,” the 36-year-old spoke after her triumph, as quoted by WTA Tennis.
She added: “It felt good to be eager, especially since there were times during the season where it was hard to get momentum. I’m game, ready to go. Let’s do this.”
Up next for her awaits another compatriot in Alison Riske, who led fourth-seeded Coco Vandeweghe 6-3 1-0 before the latter retired from the match due to ankle injury.
Cibulkova, the No. 2 seed, overcame a tricky first set to thump Japan’s Misaki Doi, winning 7-5 6-0. By the virtue of this win, the Slovak will return to the Top 10 of women’s rankings come Monday.
Moving on to the last-four stage, Cibulkova will trade punches with Britain’s Johanna Konta, who battled past China’s Saisai Zheng 6-2 4-6 6-3 in a grueling two-hour and 21-minute encounter.
