Florianopolis, Brazil – Top-seeded Venus Williams advanced to the quarterfinals at the inaugural WTA Brasil Tennis Cup, though it took a tougher-than-expected victory over Garbine Muguruza on Wednesday for the seven-time Grand Slam champion to move on.
Williams was taken to the limit by the 19-year-old Muguruza, ranked 96th in the world, before ultimately prevailing by a 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 score on the hardcourts at Federacao Catarinense de Tenis.
Muguruza staved off three match points while serving to tie the match at 5-5 in the final set, but Williams was able to hold serve before breaking the young Spaniard to prevail in a two-hour, 12-minute marathon.
Williams' next opponent will be Magdalena Rybarikova, with the fifth-seeded Slovak holding off Spanish qualifier Beatriz Garcia Vidagany 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in her second-round bout.
In other second-round action involving seeds, Hungarian Timea Babos upset No. 4 Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 6-1, 6-2 and No. 7 Kristina Mladenovic of France whipped German Tatjana Malek 6-2, 6-1.
Additionally, Hungarian Melinda Czink overcame Brazilian wild card Beatriz Haddad Maia 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), Russian Olga Puchkova came back to beat France's Caroline Garcia 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, and Romanian Monica Niculescu mauled Croatian qualifier Tereza Mrdeza 6-1, 6-1. Czink will encounter Mladenovic, while Puchkova will face Czech Jana Cepelova and Niculescu will battle Babos in the round of eight.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.