Roberta Vinci beats Petra Kvitova to advance at Wuhan Open

WUHAN — Roberta Vinci advanced to the quarterfinals of the Wuhan Open by beating defending champion Petra Kvitova 7-6 (3), 6-2 on Wednesday.

The 15th-seeded Italian saved five of seven break points.

"Against Petra it's always tough to play," Vinci said. "She's an incredible player, she won last year here. But I played a really good match. She played so well the first few games so I tried not to think about this and focus."

Also, Venus Williams beat Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-3, 6-4. A day after earning her 700th victory, Williams hit five aces and saved three of four break points.

Williams, a seven-time major champion, improved to 3-3 against Navarro and will next face either top-seeded Simona Halep or Johanna Konta.

Also, fifth-seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain rallied to beat ninth-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 4-6, 6-1, 6-0. Muguruza will face Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia in the quarterfinals. Schmiedlova beat Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-4, 6-2.