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BEIJING — Second-ranked Iga Swiatek dropped only two games and advanced to the quarterfinals of the China Open by beating Magda Linette 6-1, 6-1 on Wednesday.
Swiatek will play in her 14th quarterfinal of 2023. She will next face either ninth-seeded Caroline Garcia or Anhelina Kalinina on Friday.
Earlier, Jelena Ostapenko defeated fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-2. The 13th-seeded Latvian had 24 winners against 11 unforced errors.
Ostapenko will next play 22nd-ranked Liudmila Samsonova. The Russian player beat Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-5.
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and US Open champion Coco Gauff play their next matches Thursday.
Shanghai Masters
Brandon Nakashima beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-1, 7-6 (3) and will play third-seeded Holger Rune in the second round, while Yoshihito Nishioka defeated Daniel Altmaier 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2) to set up a meeting with eighth-seeded Casper Ruud.
Other first-round winners included Thanasi Kokkinakis, Mackenzie McDonald, Fabian Marozsan, Jaume Munar, Yannick Hanfmann and Chinese wild card Yunchaokete Bu.
Andy Murray will play Chengdu Open finalist Roman Safiullin later Wednesday.
The top 32 seeded players, including Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev, received a first-round bye and will play in the second round starting Saturday.
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