BRISBANE, Australia (AP) Fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber, the highest-ranked woman remaining at the Brisbane International, advanced to the semifinals on Thursday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Top-seeded Simona Halep and defending champion Maria Sharapova withdrew injured ahead of their matches on Tuesday, while second-seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain retired with an injury in the second set of her match Wednesday.
Kerber, a former Wimbledon semifinalist, next plays either Carla Suarez Navarro or Varvara Lepchenko.
In another quarterfinal, American qualifier Samantha Crawford beat Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-0 and will next play the winner of a Thursday night match between Victoria Azarenka and Roberta Vinci.
At the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, Austria's Tamira Paszek became the first player into the semifinals when she beat fellow qualifier Kirsten Flipkens 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3 in a match that lasted 2 hours, 51 minutes.
Paszek, an Auckland semifinalist in 2008 as a teenager, saved a break point in the final game before finally converting her eighth match point.
''I felt at 4-1 in the second (set) like someone pulled the plug and I had no more energy left,'' Paszek said. ''It was kind of a weird feeling out there and she kept pushing me all around the court. But it was the crowd that kept me going and I'm incredibly happy to be through.''
At the Hopman Cup mixed team event in Perth, Ukraine qualified for Saturday's final with singles wins over the Australia Gold team of Jarmila Wolfe and Lleyton Hewitt.
Wolfe lost her singles match to Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-3 and Hewitt, who will retire after the Australian Open in two weeks, lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Alexandr Dogopolov to give the Ukraine a winning 2-0 lead ahead of the mixed doubles.
In a night match, Jack Sock and Vicky Duval will lead the United States against the Czech Republic. Duval replaced Serena Williams, who has inflammation in her left knee and wants to rest ahead of the Australian Open beginning Jan. 18.
The Australia Green team of Nick Kyrgios and Daria Gavrilova can advance to the final against Ukraine with a win Friday night over France. Britain plays Germany in the other match Friday to end preliminary play.
