BRISBANE — Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka opened her 2013 season with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Germany's Sabine Lisicki Wednesday to join No. 3 Serena Williams and fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber in the Brisbane International quarterfinals. Azarenka, who won here in 2009 without dropping a set, got the better of 37th-ranked Lisicki in a match containing nine breaks of serve. The Belarusian won the Sydney International and then her first major at the Australian Open last year during a 26-match winning streak to start the season and spent most of 2012 atop the women's rankings. Azarenka next plays Kazakh qualifier Ksenia Pervak, who has ousted former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and Urszula Radwanska in Brisbane in matches decided by third-set tiebreakers. In earlier second-round matches, Angelique Kerber recovered from 5-2 down in the deciding tiebreaker to beat Puerto Rican qualifier Monica Puig, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7) and Sloane Stephens had a 6-3, 6-4 win over Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson to set up a quarterfinal against fellow American Serena. In men's second-round matches, third-seeded Gilles Simon of France beat Alejandro Falla of Colombia 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), and No. 5 Kei Nishikori of Japan had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Tommy Robredo of Spain. Sixth-seeded Florian Mayer lost 6-4, 6-2 to 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis. In the night match, fourth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov was leading 6-2, 4-1 when Jarkko Nieminen of Finland retired due to a migraine. Tipsarevic advances in Chennai Open World No. 9 Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia opened his campaign in the ATP Chennai Open Wednesday with an emphatic win that lifted him into the quarterfinals. Tipsarevic, seeded second behind world No. 6 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in the $430,000 season opener, brushed aside Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-2, 6-3 in a second-round match. Tipsarevic next plays eighth seed Go Soeda of Japan, who overcame a spirited challenge from Indian qualifier Prakash Amritraj before winning 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 6-4 in two hours and 30 minutes. Sixth seed Robin Haase of the Netherlands was knocked out in the second round by Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, losing 7-5, 6-3. Li struggles In China, the top-seeded Li Na stumbled into the Shenzhen Open quarterfinals with a messy 6-3, 6-4 win over Julia Cohen of the US in the second round Wednesday. Li will play eighth-seeded Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia next. No. 2-seeded Marion Bartoli also advanced by defeating Swiss qualifier Stefanie Voegele 7-5, 6-4. Bartoli will take on fifth-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic for a place in the semifinals. China's Zhou Yi-miao, ranked 177, completed the quarterfinals lineup with a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3) win over Taiwan's Chang Kai-chen. Romania's Monica Niculescu will take on Zhou Thursday. — Agencies
