Top seed Venus Williams eased into the semi-finals of the Brasil Tennis Cup on a day when competitive matches were thin on the ground.
Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova threatened to give the American a tough game but in the end Williams overwhelmed her opponent to claim a 6-4 6-0 win.
In the next round she will face Russia's Olga Puchkova, whose own quarter-final win was even more comprehensive, 6-1 6-1 over another Slovakian, Jana Cepelova.
The other semi-final will be between French seventh seed Kristina Mladenovic and Monica Niculescu of Romania, who both beat Hungarian opponents in straight sets.
Mladenovic saw off Melinda Czink 6-4 6-3, while Niculescu was a 6-3 6-2 winner over Timea Babos.
Update:
Hello, regular commenting on Orange News and Sport pages closes on Thursday 30 May 2013. We will continue to provide a commenting facility on major news and sport events on orangeworld.co.uk. Contact us via http://oran.ge/OWfeedback if you have any further questions. Thanks.
