TOKYO: Top-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany beat Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-4 Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the $1 million Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

Kerber, the world number eight, grabbed two straight games after the pair were 4-4 in the first set and overcame a 1-3 deficit in the second set to defeat the 35th-ranked Svitolina in 86 minutes.

In the quarterfinals, Kerber will take on Slovakia’s sixth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova who outlasted American Coco Vandeweghe 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 in the round of 16.

In a much touted second-round match, seventh-seeded Lucie Safarova battled back to beat wild card Belinda Bencic 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, spoiling the Swiss teenager’s upward momentum this year.

Safarova, who reached the semifinals at this year’s Wimbledon, faces third-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in the round of eight.

Ivanovic, 10th in the world, beat former world No.1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open champion, 6-3, 6-4. Azarenka is ranked 25th.

Radwanska through

In Seoul, top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland won 6-0, 6-0 for the fourth time in a WTA main draw on Wednesday.

Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa was the latest to be “double-bageled” by Radwanska, in the second round of the Korea Open.

Defending champion Radwanska lined up fifth-seeded Varvara Lepchenko of the United States, who ousted South Korean wild card Han Na-Lae 7-5, 6-1.

Radwanska leads Lepchenko in their head-to-head 5-1, but Lepchenko’s win came in their last meeting in the second round at Stanford in July. That win also served as Lepchenko’s first win over a top-five player.

Second-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic outlasted Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2, and Christina McHale of the US beat Mona Barthel of Germany 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.

Cornet advances

In Guangzhou, sole surviving seed Alize Cornet of France beat 2009 champion Shahar Peer of Israel 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the second round of the Guangzhou Open in South China on Wednesday.

No 2 Cornet overcame nine double faults and seven service breaks. The only seed to reach the second round, she next meets Taiwanese wild card Hsieh Su-Wei, the 2012 champ.

Hsieh beat Chinese wild card Zhu Lin 6-4, 6-2.

Another Chinese wild card, Wang Yafan, who stunned top seed Samantha Stosur in her first WTA main draw match on Tuesday, defeated Croatian qualifier Petra Martic 7-6 (5), 6-3. Wang’s quarterfinal opponent will be countrywoman Zhang Kai-Lan.

In other quarterfinals, Romanian Monica Niculescu will play Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig, and Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky faces Spain’s Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor.

All four have one career WTA title, with Puig and Torro-Flor winning their first this year.