Top-seeded Venus Williams Wednesday afternoon brushed aside the challenge of local wildcard Lee Pei-Chi and book her place in the second round of the Taiwan Open.
It took Williams just 57 minutes to win the match during which she broke her opponent’s serve three times. Williams’ serve appeared too much for the local player in the one-sided match that completed with a 6-3, 6-2 result.
"It was exciting to compete against a local player - the crowd were super involved and made things exciting," Venus said. "The first round is never easy so I'm really happy to now be advancing and hopefully play better and better with every game."
In stark contrast to her opponent, Lee was stepping on court for her very first WTA main draw match. And while she was unable to maintain her bright start, Williams had some words of encouragement.
"I didn't know what to expect because I'd never met her before and was really impressed with how she competed. Obviously we know Hsieh [Su-Wei] and the Chan sisters, but from today I can see that tennis here has a bright future," Williams said.
Next up for the seven-time major winner, a surprise first-round loser at the Australian Open last month, will be a different challenge in the shape of Urszula Radwanska.
"It'll be a little bit different from today - she plays with a little bit more top spin - so I'm going to need to have a different strategy. But you never know, and whatever it takes to win the point is what I'm going to do."
There were mixed fortunes for the other seeds in action on Wednesday. No.3 seed Yulia Putintseva finished strongly to see off Miyu Kato, 6-4, 5-7, 6-0, and book a quarterfinal berth, while Kurumi Nara, the No.7 seed, was also pushed hard during a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over Zhang Yuxuan.
No.4 seed Zarina Diyas looked set to join them when she coasted through the second set against Elizaveta Kulichkova. However, Kulichkova, a talented junior player, bounced back to unseat an error-prone Diyas in the third set and triumph, 7-5, 0-6, 6-4.