Top seed Maria Sakkari and No.5 seed Belinda Bencic picked up speedy victories at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Wednesday, locking up quarterfinal spots at the WTA 500 event in the process.

Greece's Sakkari, seeded No.1 at a WTA event for the first time, eased past World No.43 and Russian hope Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-4 in a 1-hour and 15-minute tilt.

The World No.7 Sakkari extended her commanding head-to-head lead over Alexandrova to 4-1 as she swept into her first quarterfinal of the 2022 season. She is one win away from matching her best St. Petersburg run, when she reached the 2020 semifinals.

It was Sakkari's second consecutive straight-sets win over a Russian this week, but she had an easier time against Alexandrova than she did in her opener, where she had to come back from 4-1 down in the first set before dispatching Anastasia Potapova.

Match moments: Sakkari did not allow Alexandrova a break point in their match, claiming 79 percent of points off of her first serve and an impressive 73 percent of points behind her second serve.

An error-forcing volley by a net-charging Sakkari gave her the first break of the match for 2-1 in the opening set. The Greek sailed through the remainder of the first set from there, taking it in less than half an hour.

Alexandrova kept the second set more competitive, but the Russian still fought from behind the entire way after dropping her first service game with a double fault on break point. Sakkari continued to hold the upper hand and never yielded as she held on to notch the win.

More from Wednesday in St. Petersburg: Kontaveit, Mertens move on

Next up: Sakkari now has a quarterfinal clash with No.8 seed Elise Mertens, who defeated Petra Martic in three sets earlier on Wednesday. The rivalry between Sakkari and Mertens is deadlocked at four wins apiece, with Sakkari winning their most recent meeting at Roland Garros last year.

Bencic stops qualifier Juvan

World No.24 Bencic took only five minutes more than Sakkari to collect her second-round win. Last year's Olympic champion from Switzerland needed 1 hour and 20 minutes to beat Slovenian qualifier Kaja Juvan 6-1, 7-6(2).

Highlights: Bencic topples qualifier Juvan in second round

In their only prior encounter, Juvan had upset Bencic in straight sets in the first round of Wimbledon last year. But Bencic got her revenge in Russia, reaching the quarterfinals in St. Petersburg for the third time in her four appearances.

Bencic is one step closer to returning to the St. Petersburg final, having finished as runner-up to Roberta Vinci in her tournament debut in 2016. On Wednesday, she broke 102nd-ranked Juvan four times and won 81 percent of her first-service points.

After winning six games in a row to notch the one-set lead, Bencic found herself down an early break in the second set. However, the Swiss player got back on level terms at 4-4, breaking Juvan's serve in a game where she fired three forehand winners.

The pair advanced to a second-set tiebreak, where Bencic leapt to an early 3-0 lead, then slammed another forehand winner to reach quadruple match point at 6-2. A wide return by Juvan gave Bencic the victory.

Next up for Bencic will be a battle against No.2 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia. Kontaveit has a 2-0 lead in their head-to-head.