Pegula, Navarro advance in Adelaide

MANILA, Philippines — Jessica Pegula dropped just five games to romp past Maria Sakkari at the Adelaide International on Wednesday in a delayed start to her season days before the Australian Open.

The top seed and US Open finalist, who had a bye in the first round, overwhelmed the Greek former world number three 6-4, 6-1.

The world number seven will play either Spain’s Paula Badosa or fellow American Ashlyn Krueger in the quarterfinals.

Second-seeded fellow American Emma Navarro, ranked eighth in the world, came through a tougher assignment needing two hours to battle past Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (7/4), 6-4.

She will face either Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic or another Russian, Liudmila Samsonova, for a place in the semifinals.