Venus wins 700th match at Wuhan

WUHAN, China — Venus Williams earned the 700th victory of her career Tuesday by beating German qualifier Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-3 in the second round of Wuhan Open. Venus is a seven-time major champion who won her last Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2008. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova beat a top-20 player for only the third time in her career when she defeated fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6). Schmiedlova will next meet Kristina Mladenovic, who beat 14th-seeded Madison Keys of the United States 7-5, 1-6, 6-2. Ana Ivanovic advanced with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Madison Brengle. The ninth-seeded Ivanovic has only dropped seven games in two matches. Also, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland retired from her match against Camila Giorgi of Italy with a left leg injury. Bencic retired after dropping the first set 6-2. Victoria Azarenka also limped off and retired after she was broken in the second set by Johanna Konta and was trailing 6-4, 1-0 in her third round match. In other matches, sixth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany defeated Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-4, 2-6, 6-2; 12th-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine beat Varvara Lepchenko of the United States 6-4, 6-2; and Coco Vandeweghe of US beat Caroline Garcia of France 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6). Beck advances at Tashkent In Uzbekistan, top-seeded Annika Beck of Germany reached the second round of the Tashkent Open Tuesday, defeating Russia’s Elizaveta Kulichkova 6-3, 6-1. Beck faced 11 break points against Kulichkova, but lost serve only once, in the second set. Beck next plays Jana Cepelova of Slovakia, who breezed past Uzbekistani qualifier Sabina Sharipova 6-2, 6-1. Also Tuesday, seventh-seeded Jelena Ostapenko lost in the first round 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski. Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan beat eighth-seeded Andreea Mitu of Romania 7-5, 6-3. Burgos wins in Shenzhen Eighth-seeded Victor Estrella Burgos was stretched to three sets before beating qualifier Matthew Ebden 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 in the first round of Shenzhen Open Tuesday. Burgos had seven aces in the win. Three other seeded players recorded victories in straight sets to move into the second round. Fifth-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France defeated Lucas Pouille 6-0, 6-3; sixth-seeded Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic beat Zhang Ze 6-3, 6-2; and seventh-seeded Aljaz Bedene of Britain beat Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-3, 6-3. Zhizhen Zhang, making his first appearance in a main draw, defeated Takuto Niki of Japan 6-1, 7-5. Another Chinese player, Yan Bai, also advanced, beating Takuto Niki of Japan 6-1, 7-5.