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Cape Town - World number one Angelique Kerber reached the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open along with fifth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki on Thursday.
Denmark's Wozniacki was a comfortable winner against Heather Watson of Britain, winning 6-3, 6-3 while Kerber needed three sets to beat American Louisa Chirico 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
Watson started off well by breaking Wozniacki's serve in the second game of the match to lead 2-0, but that all changed when the Dane claimed her opponent's serve three times, third, fifth and ninth games, to win the opening set 6-3.
In the second set, there were five breaks of serve but Wozniacki prevailed 6-3 to set-up a quarter-final clash with China's Wang Qiang after she got a walkover against British third seed Johanna Konta, who was forced out of playing due to a back strain.
The top-seeded Kerber started well against Chirico with two early breaks to lead 4-1 and even though the American broke back in the sixth game, Kerber broke again going on top win the set 6-2. In the second set, the only break of serve happened in the sixth game when Kerber dropped her serve for Chirico to even things out by claiming the set 6-3.
In the third set, it was all Kerber, with three breaks, to win the set and match 6-2 to next face Australian eighth seed Daria Gavrilova after she defeated Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 7-5.In some other results, unseeded American Bethanie Mattek-Sands caused an upset when she saw off sixth seed Caroline Garcia of France 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 while Kristina Mladenovic of France beat Japan's Nao Hibino 7-6(5), 6-2.
