DUBAI: Venus Williams pummeled Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-1 in a second-round match between former world No. 1s at the Dubai Championships on Wednesday.

Williams showed the form that once delivered her seven Grand Slam titles.

Ivanovic couldn’t take advantage of the two break-point opportunities Williams offered in the sixth game of the first set.

Williams, a wild card, lost only seven total points in her other six service games.

In the quarterfinals, Williams will play Italian qualifier Flavia Pennetta, who upset second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 6-1.

Radwanska, the 2012 Dubai champion, also was ousted in the second round at the Qatar Open in Doha last week.

She led 4-1 then lost eight games in a row to be 6-4, 3-0 down.

The only other game Radwanska won was the fourth game of the second set.

Nishikori, Haas, Hewitt advance

In Delray Beach, Japan’s Kei Nishikori, fresh off his fourth career ATP title, reached the second round of the Delray Beach Open on Tuesday by defeating Gastao Elias 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.

Third seed Nishikori surrendered seven double faults but won six of his 13 break-point chances and dropping his serve only three times against the 23-year-old from Portugal over one hour and 55 minutes.

Nishikori, ranked 15th, will next face 65th-rated Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili, who rallied to eliminate Australian Matthew Ebden 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Top seed Tommy Haas and eighth seed Lleyton Hewitt breezed into the second round.

World No.12 Haas, a 35-year-old German who won the event in 2006, needed only 55 minutes to eliminate US qualifier Wayne Odesnik 6-2, 6-1 while 32-year-old Aussie Hewitt, cheered on by countryman and golf legend Greg Norman, took 65 minutes to oust American Bradley Klahn 6-3, 6-1.

Haas’ win secured a second-round match against US qualifier Steve Johnson, who defeated Kazak Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-3.

Hewitt, who now has 598 ATP match wins, will next face fellow Aussie Marinko Matosevic, who downed Belgian David Goffin 6-2, 6-4.

South African fourth seed Kevin Anderson, who lives in Delray Beach, reached the second round by fighting back to beat American Tim Smyczek 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Next in Anderson’s path is Karlovic, who opened with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 victory over Aussie lucky loser Samuel Groth.

Nadal through

In Rio De Janeiro, top-ranked Rafael Nadal, playing for the first time since losing last month’s Australian Open final, beat fellow Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-3, 7-5 Tuesday at the Rio Open.

Nadal skipped Buenos Aires last week due to the nagging back injury that hindered his bid for a 14th Grand Slam singles crown last month at Melbourne, where he dropped the final to Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.

That left his comeback for Rio and a $1.3 million ATP and WTA event that will launch a clay-court campaign Nadal hopes concludes with a ninth career French Open crown.

Nadal connected on 57 percent of his first serves and won 77 of his first-serve points and 65 percent of those on his second serve, surrendering only one break and breaking his 84th-ranked rival in the penultimate game to advance after one hours and 40 minutes.

Next up for the 27-year-old lefthander from Mallorca is another compatriot, 72nd-ranked Albert Montanes, who ousted Dutchman Robin Haase 6-1, 7-6 (7/4).

Yet another Spaniard, second seed David Ferrer, could await Nadal in the final. Ferrer launched his bid for a Rio crown by downing Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-2, 6-3.