After overcoming multiple deficits to American Alison Riske, which included falling down a set and a break in the second as well as going down a break in the deciding set, French Open finalist Lucie Safarova made light work of Chinese Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh.
Last year's Wimbledon semifinalist flew out to a quick start breaking Hsieh in her opening service game and consolidated her serve to get out to a 3-0 lead in the first set. Another break of serve in the seventh game gave the Czech the double break as she served out to take the set 6-2. Despite the two breaks of serve, the sixth seed had eight different chances to break in the set only converting on the two that were previously mentioned. If she can take anything as a positive out of the first set, it would be her serving and her return game. She won more than half of the points on Hsieh's serve while managing to hit 64 percent of first serves in winning 79 percent of those points.
The second set was much more of the same, but the Taipei native was refusing to back down. She served at a much better rate in the second set, but once again found herself in a world of trouble in the fourth game as Safarova raced out to a 3-1 lead. Hsieh kept trying to fight back, but the Czech was sensational on her serve dropping only four points on it in the second, one on the first serve. As the set wore on, the break looked imminent as the Czech was pushing on to close the match out. She did just that breaking the Taipei native to take the final set 6-3.
After her battle with Alison Riske, this was a much needed straightforward win for the Czech. Despite the victory, things get much more difficult for six seed as she meets powerful American Sloane Stephens in the next round. The American took out fellow countrywoman Lauren Davis in the second round and has the fire power to definitely keep Safarova in check. Stephens has revived her career since the hiring or Nick Saviano as her coach but still struggles to find herself dictating points from the get-go despite her raw power on both wings. These two meet on Friday in what surely is going to be one of the most popular matches of the day.