AUCKLAND: Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams strolled into the quarterfinals of the Auckland Classic on Wednesday with second-round straight-sets wins.

Venus Williams was made to work at the start of her match with Japan’s fleet-footed Kurumi Nara, dropping serve twice before shifting up a gear to cruise home 6-4, 6-1.

Although the win was comfortable, 34-year-old Williams was not satisfied with the way her usually venomous serve misfired, delivering a less than 50 percent success rate.

She plays Russian Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals after the Russian breezed past Croatian teenager Ana Konjuh 6-3, 6-1.

Head-to-head, Vesnina leads Williams 2-1 although Williams won their last encounter in Dubai 11 months ago.

The pressure was reversed for top-seed Caroline Wozniacki who cruised through the first set against rising American Taylor Townsend and then struggled to get home in two sets 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).

Wozniacki’s first serve worked a treat with an 81 percent success rate and no double faults, but she had difficulty dealing with Townsend’s switch to go to the net more in the second set.

The left-handed American broke serve to lead 4-2 in the second set but double-faulted when serving for the set, and Wozniacki came through to close out the tiebreak with an ace.

“The second set I broke her and thought it’s going well for me and all of a sudden I see myself down 5-2 and she started playing really well. All of a sudden I had to fight my way back,” Wozniacki said.

Of the other seeded players still alive, seventh seed Coco Vandeweghe beat last year’s semi finalist Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium 6-1, 6-7 (7-5), 7-5 while in an all-American clash Lauren Davis disposed of sixth seed Sloane Stephens 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Easy for Nishikori

In Brisbane, Kei Nishikori beat Steve Johnson 6-4, 7-5 at the Brisbane International on Wednesday to start a season in which he wants to be in the vanguard aiming to end the dominance of the old guard in men’s tennis.

The Japanese player set Asian benchmarks during a breakout 2014, reaching his first Grand Slam final at the US Open and rising to a year-end No. 5 ranking.

After a first-round bye, second-seeded Nishikori needed 80 minutes to advance from the second round in Brisbane, serving out on his fourth match point against Johnson.

Three players have ruled the men’s game for nine years: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic captured 34 of the 38 major titles leading into the US Open last September. The four exceptions were Juan Martin del Potro at the 2009 US Open, Andy Murray’s wins at the 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon, and Stan Wawrinka’s victory at the 2014 Australian Open.

None of those players reached the final at Flushing Meadows, though, with Marin Cilic beating Nishikori for the title. And that sparked much hype about the future.

Nishikori, Cilic, Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov are widely tipped to be among the next generation of champions.

Fourth-seeded Dimitrov had a more difficult opener in Brisbane, fending off two match points in the tiebreaker before beating regular practice partner Jerome Chardy of France 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8) in 2 ½ hours. Dimitrov saved one match point with an ace, and went ahead when Chardy fired consecutive double faults from 6-5.

Bernard Tomic advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (2), 6-1 victory over fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, while Martin Klizan of Slovakia beat seventh-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 1-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (7).

In women’s singles, second-seeded Ana Ivanovic defeated Jarmila Gajdosova 6-4, 6-1 in a night match. Earlier, seventh-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain had a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 win over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia, and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia beat Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.