Dartz Black Alligator MMXX revealed | Nick Tsagaris

 This could be the world’s most crass SUV.

The latest creation from Latvian car maker Dartz, dubbed the Prombron Black Alligator MMXX Black Tiger Lunar edition, is the ultimate armoured luxury land yacht.

Based on the Mercedes-AMG GLS, the Black Alligator MMXX turns the obnoxious dial all the way up to 10.

Part tank, part SUV, it’s designed for the world’s most anxious dictators and drug lords.

There are multiple biometrically accessed storage units in the vehicle, which Dartz says is ideal for keeping guns, money or cigars.

The Prombron Black Alligator MMXX is the latest creation from Dartz.

Nosy passers by and would-be thieves are in for a nasty surprise, as the door handles have been designed to deliver an electric shock when armed.

For those that want to avoid having their picture taken there is a splash-light cannon to ruin paparazzi photos.

The Black Alligator MMXX ditches conventional side mirrors for digital cameras that have been incorporated into the armoured hull.

The armoured car is built for the world’s uber rich.

Dartz says this is to stop the loss of vision when the side mirrors are shot out.

It can be optioned with electrochromic bulletproof windows which change from clear to opaque by applying an electrical current through them

The V8 powered SUV also has eight exhaust pipes, one for each cylinder. Dartz hasn’t revealed its exact engine but it uses a supercharged 6.2-litre Hellcat V8 producing 745kW in one of its other creations.

There are no side mirrors.

Dartz has removed most digital screens from the Mercedes donor car and replaced them with analog dials and clocks. One screen has been retained for satnav. display The dash is loaded with gold and can be optioned to include diamonds.

There is plenty of gold used in the dash.

Inside there is a range of materials used including alligator, shark, and stingray skin.

This isn’t the first time that Dartz has made an outrageous vehicle. One of its creations appeared in the 2012 movie The Dictator featuring Sacha Baron Cohen.

And the company also has a history of using out-there animal skins for interiors. In 2009 the company revealed a special edition of its $1.6m Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition armored SUV — with interior trim of whale penis leather.

Nick Tsagaris – Chinese Cities Enforce Their own Versions of The Social Credit System to Target Issues in Their Area

Irresponsible dog owners, unethical doctors, and dishonest e-commerce vendors are being punished and kept in check under a series of evolving, local credit scoring systems being rolled out across China.

Just three days before China’s record Singles Day sales this week, an alliance of online shopping platforms — including global giant Alibaba — implemented a credit system to punish untrustworthy sellers in eastern Zhejiang province.

The new alliance is set to work in conjunction with the provincial social ranking system, a localised version of the mandatory national Social Credit System (SCS) that is geared at monitoring the behaviour of China’s 1.4 billion citizens.

While the SCS is due to be fully operational nationwide by 2020, a wide array of social scoring systems are already being tested by local governments at provincial and city levels.

Forty-one cities and 31 provinces across China even have their own platforms stemming from the national SCS platform, officially titled: Credit China.

But it’s still unclear at this stage whether the localised social credit scores for citizens will be shared with or rolled into the national-level credit reporting platforms.

Dog owners docked all 12 points will lose their pets

In Jinan, a city in eastern Shandong province, authorities have rolled out a credit scoring system to enforce responsible dog ownership.

After enforcing the system in January last year, recently released figures show some 1430 owners have been penalised, with more than 120 temporarily surrendering their beloved pooch after losing all their points, according to a CCTV news article on Jinan’s SCS website.

Just like an Australian driver’s licence, the pet demerit system gives every registered dog owner a licence with 12 points, and penalises owners for every infraction.

First-time offenders who walked their dog without a leash or tag, or didn’t clean up after their pet, or were reported for a disturbance, were docked three points.

Second-time offenders were fined 200 to 500 yuan ($40 to $100) and penalised six points, and those offending for a third time would lose all 12 points and be forced to surrender their dog, the provincial SCS website states.

Meanwhile, pet owners who failed to renew their dog registration every year would also have their dog temporarily taken to a kennel until they passed an exam on dog-keeping regulations.

A China Daily report published this year said complaints about owners walking dogs without a leash dropped by 43 per cent as a result of the credit system, while state media Legal Daily commended the “effectiveness” of the system and argued for it to be rolled out across the country.

In eastern Zhejiang province — widely known as China’s e-commerce hub — a similar local credit scoring system was adopted last week to keep online vendors in check just days before the record sales on Singles Day.

According to Credit China, a dozen online shopping platforms last Thursday established a “dishonesty disciplinary alliance” to punish bad behaviour — such as selling fake goods — by blocking and deleting vendor accounts, and excluding users from promotional activities.

The alliance said it would also work with the Zhejiang Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce to penalise negative behaviour by deducting individuals’ points.

‘The social credit system itself is an evolving concept’

While the SCS is often described as a national system designed to engineer better individual behaviour by “awarding the trustworthy” and “punishing the disobedient”, the reality is that it’s not a single system.

Maya Wang, a senior researcher from Human Rights Watch China, said the “social credit system itself is an evolving concept”, though different aspects of the system have become slightly clearer over time.

She added that at the national level, the SCS appeared to be a straight-up blacklisting system rather than a point-based demerit system.

“Then you have the local systems which are diverging from each other and from the national version,” she said.

“EACH CITY OR LOCALE SEEMS TO TAKE THE IDEA OF A SOCIAL CREDIT AND POINT SYSTEM AND KIND OF RUN WITH IT.”

Samantha Hoffman, an independent consultant on Chinese state security, said local governments and ministries had separate social credit implementing regulations, pilot programs, and credit reporting platforms based on the 2014-2020 Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System.

“There is not a standardised national-level credit system, but there are national-level credit reporting platforms,” she said.

“In theory, credit data from the various platforms [like Jinan’s pet reporting platform] should eventually be shared with other credit platforms [like the national Credit China platform].”

‘You could be sanctioned everywhere’

Ms Wang said that in general, there seemed to be a movement towards increasing regulations and laws to control people’s behaviour in China.

In Foshan, a city in central Guangdong Province with 400,000 shared bikes, authorities are having discussions about punishing inconsiderate bike riders through the local social credit system.

And in Suzhou, a city west of Shanghai, authorities introduced a system that penalises doctors who fail to follow the regulations, such as misusing antibiotics, accepting bribery, and selling organs or blood.

But Ms Wang said the idea of awarding and deducting points for regulatory infractions wasn’t completely new.

“For the Social Credit System, what was new, and perhaps quite worrying, was the fact that if you do something the authorities consider to be a dishonest behaviour — however the authorities define it — you could be sanctioned everywhere and in kind of a completely unrelated sphere of life,” she said.

“THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO ENGINEER GOOD BEHAVIOUR IN MANY ASPECTS OF LIFE, WHETHER OR NOT IT’S ABOUT PET OWNERSHIP … OR HOW TO BEHAVE ON A TRAIN OR PLANE.”

A video taken by journalist James O’Malley on a Chinese high-speed train between Beijing and Shanghai last month showed what life might be like under what many netizens have described as a dystopian version of the future.

The clip showed an announcement warning passengers that if they travel without a ticket or behave disorderly in public areas, they will have their behaviour recorded in their “individual credit information system”.

By: abc.net.au

Nick Tsagaris – The Longreach Teen Dancing Her Way to Brisbane

From the dirt and dust to the big smoke, Longreach’s 16-year-old dancing queen Melanie Kilili will head off to Brisbane next month to partake in a Queensland Ballet residency.

Melanie is one of just 10 students from across the state to receive a spot in the High School Work Experience Residency program, and she could not be happier.

Melanie is the daughter of the owner of the Longreach School of Dance, Viv Kilili, and has been dancing since she could walk.

“I’ve been student teaching and helping mum in Longreach since I was about 11 with the kids and I always just really enjoy it,” she said.

Melanie said that aside from school, dancing is all she does.

A surprise opportunity

Finding out she had been accepted into the program was a massive surprise for Melanie — mostly due to the fact that she did not know her mum had applied for her.

“MY MUM DID IT ALL — SHE DIDN’T EVEN TELL ME SHE PUT ME IN IT,” MELANIE SAID.

Ms Kilili said they first heard about the program through one of Melanie’s teachers, but forgot to apply until the last minute, so she did it quickly.

“We just had to fill in a few things about what she has done — as far as community engagement and things like that go, then I sent it off and it was only last week that we got an email saying she had been one in ten chosen,” Ms Kilili said.

The Year 10 student dances for 15 hours every week, and on top of her studies is also completing a Certificate III in Student Teaching through the Australian Teachers of Dance (ATOD).

Melanie said she had always helped her mum with the younger dance classes and loved it and wanted to start getting qualifications.

“A few people said there’s a [certificate] available and I said ‘I’m so down, let’s do it’,” she said.

As for her residency with Queensland Ballet, Melanie said she was most excited about the opportunity to not only see The Nutcracker, but to be backstage.

“BEING OUT HERE [AT LONGREACH], IT’S SMALL AND I JUST WASN’T EXPECTING TO GET AN OPPORTUNITY LIKE THAT,” SHE SAID.

“It’s crazy.”

Currently doing tap, ballet, jazz, contemporary, and hip hop, Melanie said it was impossible to choose her favourite.

Queensland Ballet’s High School Work Experience Residency program is open to students in Years 10 to 12, and gives them an opportunity to develop an understanding of all aspects of the industry.

The program goes for five days, and Melanie will begin on December 16.

Great opportunity for regional dancers

Felicity Mandile, the director of strategy and global engagement for the Queensland Ballet, said the program is an “integral” part of the business.

“It’s a week behind the scenes, so a little bit different to normal work experience,” she said.

“They become immersed in the company … and have the opportunity to talk to marketing, finance, the artistic teams.”

Ms Mandile said this gave the young performers a look at the many career pathways available to them — not just the stage.

For rural and regional dancers like Melanie, the experience is invaluable.

“WE ARE THRILLED TO SEE AS MANY REGIONAL KIDS AS WE CAN,” MS MANDILE SAID.

“It’s really important as a metropolitan based company that we aren’t just focussing on our South East Queensland boundaries.”

Melanie said she does not mind where she ends up in the industry, as long as she is involved in dance, and said the residency will set her on her way to understanding the ins and outs of the business.

“Well I’d like to do anything with dancing — whether it’s teaching or performance,” she said.

By: abc.net.au

Nick Tsagaris – Usain Bolt Offered Deal By Maltese Champions League Hopefuls

Ambitious Maltese football club Valletta FC want to be taking on the likes of Manchester United and Barcelona within 12 months, and they want eight-time Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter Usain Bolt to help them.

Currently trialling with A-League club the Central Coast Mariners, Bolt has been offered a two-year deal by Valletta’s Abu Dhabi-based ownership group, Sanban Investment Group.

The new owners took control of the club in September, and have aspirations to qualify for Europe’s showpiece club competition, the UEFA Champions League by next season.

Valletta FC chief executive officer Ghasston Slimen has told the ABC he has been inspired by Bolt’s journey so far, and wants to take his journey to professional football to the next level.

“THIS IS ABOUT WRITING HISTORY,” MR SLIMEN SAID.

“Usain Bolt broke the record in Beijing in 2008 [running 9.69 seconds in the final of the 100 metres, a record he later improved on], and I have followed him for the last year-and-a-half on his football journey.

“We play the final of the Super Cup on December 13, which we will win, because we play Balzan who we beat in the league, so can you imagine Usain Bolt lifting the Super Cup trophy 10 years after he broke the record in Beijing?

“IT WILL BE HISTORY AND IT SHOULD HAPPEN.

“We will treat him as a player, we will have him training specifically without media and he’s not going to be treated as a runner, he will be treated as a footballer.

“We want to offer him a two-year contract so he will relax, and so he knows he won’t be going anywhere.

“This isn’t about money, this is about history. This is something that they will talk about in 50 or 100 years’ time,” Mr Slimen said.

Bolt scored two goals for the Mariners in his most recent appearance for the club, a 4-0 friendly win over an amateur team from south-western Sydney last Friday night.

It was just his second hit-out for the Mariners, and while Slimen admits Bolt’s footballing skills remain a work in progress, he is excited by the potential.

“They [Central Coast Mariners] are the ones who are inspiring me. I have followed his training and his games,” Mr Slimen said.

“THE FIRST HALF WAS CATASTROPHIC, HE MADE A LOT OF MISTAKES, BUT THE FINISH FOR HIS FIRST GOAL WAS REALLY GOOD.

“What pushed me was how much he wanted it. The celebrations made me realise that he is really passionate about it. What inspired me was the way he celebrated his goal.

“I don’t want him to be here on holiday, I want him training hard.

“We have seven international players in our squad, so we would have to drop one of them if he was good enough to play in matches, and a lot of them have also been scoring for their country, so it will be very hard,” Mr Slimen said.

A deal was officially tabled to Bolt’s Australian management on Saturday, and Mr Slimen wants the 32-year-old to link up with the current Maltese Premier League champions as soon as possible.

“WE WANT HIM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, TO GET HIM IN THE SQUAD,” HE SAID.

“I don’t want to make a big fuss, I want him to sign the contract, get on the flight, arrive in Malta and train, because we need to prepare for the Super Cup.

“We will need three weeks to register him with the Maltese FA and he would probably play three to four games before the Super Cup.

“HE’S 32, I DON’T WANT HIM TO BE 33 BY THE TIME HE COMES TO MALTA.

“I think he could play for two or three years for our club, he is 32 but I don’t want him to just play football, I want him to lift trophies.”

Whilst Bolt is yet to earn a contract at the Central Coast, the ABC understands the A-League battlers do have the first right of refusal if the superstar sprinter is offered a contract elsewhere.

They remain unconvinced that is the case at this stage.

“At the moment, what is out there is very clearly agent-driven to try to pressure the club into making a decision,” a Mariners spokesperson said.

As for Ghasston Slimen and Valletta FC, the dream appears very real.

“This is not only Usain’s dream and imagination, this is the dream of others all over the world as well, including mine,” Mr Slimen said.

“If we make it to the group stage, we have to be playing big teams. Manchester United, City, Barcelona, Real Madrid.

“CAN YOU IMAGINE US PLAYING THESE BIG TEAMS IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WITH USAIN BOLT IN OUR SQUAD OR ON THE BENCH? THIS IS BIG.

“I am interested in making this a historic moment.

“I cannot forget that image of him lifting the Super Cup by himself, 10 years after Beijing.

“That image is what’s motivating me to do this.”

By: Abc.net.au

Nick Tsagaris - Lucy Gichuhi Threatens To Name Liberal Insiders Who She Says Bullied Colleagues During Leadership Spill

Liberal senator Lucy Gichuhi has threatened to use parliamentary privilege to name those inside the Liberal Party she says have bullied and intimidated her.

In an exclusive interview with RN Drive, Senator Gichuhi also said the political execution of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was a factor in her pre-selection battle.

She revealed one Liberal Party figure in South Australia asked her during her pre-selection battle as far back as June whether she wanted Mr Turnbull to lead the Liberal Party to the election.

"I was asked that question [about Malcolm Turnbull] by one of the pre-selectors. So for that question to arise, then something was already happening," she said in relation to the move against Mr Turnbull.

She said the question was asked by someone who wanted to get rid of Mr Turnbull.

Senator Gichuhi was relegated to an unwinnable spot in the South Australian Liberal pre-selection process, and has decided to speak out against bullying and intimidation.

"I will detail my experience not only with the PM's spill, because this is a culture, this is a systematic kind of issue. I will say from when I joined the Liberal Party, from when I joined politics … and how, what, where, I think, would be construed or would fit the definition of bullying," she said.

'People were subject to threats and intimidation': O'Dwyer
Cabinet Minister Kelly O'Dwyer added further weight to the claims, telling 7.30 she had spoken to both male and female MPs in the wake of the leadership spill and "it is clear to me that people were subject to threats and intimidation and bullying".


"I certainly don't think at any level we can accept intimidation or bullying in any workplace and that includes the Australian Parliament," Ms O'Dwyer said.



She said Parliament could be a "pretty robust place" when it came to policy debates, and argued that was acceptable.

"But certainly there is behaviour that is outside of the accepted bounds," she added.

Ms O'Dwyer said when people stepped outside the bounds of acceptable behaviour "we must say it is not acceptable, not to be tolerated, it is not right".

Last week, Liberal MP Julia Banks announced she would not run again for Parliament and cited bullying and intimidation over leadership.

Other Liberals dismissed that and implied politics was a rough and tumble game.

Kelly O'Dwyer said that attitude made her "a little bit disgusted".

She compared politics to AFL football, saying there's no question it can be robust, "but we do not say it is at all acceptable for someone to punch you in the head behind play".

'Senators and ministers in tears'
Senator Gichuhi said she knew bullying happened to other MPs in the Parliament during the spill because she witnessed it.

"Absolutely, I had senators and ministers in tears, that's how bad it was. One of my colleagues was in tears the whole day," she said.

But Senator Gichuhi rejected claims that it was just part of the rough and tumble of politics and said this was beyond anything acceptable.

"Absolutely not, I'm talking about senators and ministers who were in tears because they were at the crossroads where they could not choose, especially the ones from Victoria went through a very, very rough time because they were holding a carrot … like this is your pre-selection — 'hey you do this, we do that'," she said.

"One senator had to be told that on your marking the ballot paper you show another senator. What kind of workplace is that?"
Senator Gichuhi said the Liberal Party must change its processes to bring an end to the bullying culture.

"This has happened in Labor, this has happened in Liberal. So I think we need a formal, structured, protected way of dispute resolution, whatever those disputes are, and this should be in every workplace … otherwise I will be intimidated, people will be intimidated," she said.

"We must have a formal professional way of dealing with disputes whether it's in Parliament, whether somebody is a staffer, whether somebody is a parliamentarian. If you don't like the current PM, for example, there must be a formal way of addressing that. Otherwise the way it is now is just pure kangaroo court, anybody can do something.

"How do we know that tomorrow we are not going to go back into a sitting week and another side doesn't like Scott Morrison and then we start all over again?

"I just tried as much as possible to keep out of it but it just was not possible … I don't think anybody would like to be in that kind of environment, where your friends are no longer friends … colleagues who you sit next to, they are no longer looking at you with the same eyes [as we] are parliamentarians together."

Source : abc.net.au

Nick Tsagaris - US Open: Nick Kyrgios Earns Controversial Win After Receiving Umpire Pep Talk

An extraordinary mid-match pep talk from the chair umpire has fired Nick Kyrgios into a US Open third-round blockbuster with Roger Federer in New York.

Swedish official Mohamed Lahyani is already under fire for his unprecedented intervention but Kyrgios rolls on after pulling off a drama-charged 4-6 7-5 6-3 6-0 comeback win over Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Kyrgios was trailing 3-0 in the second set, having thrown away the first on a wild second-serve double-fault, when Lahyani left his chair to beg the Australian to start trying for the sake of the paying crowd and to avoid being sanctioned — again — for not giving his best effort.

"I want to help you. I want to help you," Lahyani said.

"I've seen your matches: you're great for tennis.

"Nick, I know this is not you."

The US Open released a statement from tournament referee Brian Earley, in which it was suggested Lahyani only stepped down from his chair due to the level of noise in the stadium and that the experienced umpire was checking whether Kyrgios was suffering an injury or not.

Kyrgios said, "Okay, just call the trainer to the court and I'll try."

But when the trainer arrived and asked what Kyrgios needed treatment for, the Australian said, "I don't know, check my wrist or something … can you just stay out here for like two minutes?"

The umpire's controversial "coaching" was savaged on social media, with fans furious about his perceived bias towards Kyrgios and claiming it was unfair on Herbert.

Kyrgios 'not to blame'

The USTA, already under siege over a succession of rules blunders this grand slam, was also understood to be unimpressed with Lahyani's conduct and investigating the incident.

But it certainly seemed to work for Kyrgios, who hauled himself back into the contest having looked utterly disinterested in the early stages.

Yawning one second, Kyrgios delivered a return winner the next to break Herbert to get back on serve at 4-5 in the second set before offering a subdued fist pump towards his box.

He clinched the tiebreaker to draw level and then break Herbert early in the third set to take command.

Totally revitalised, Kyrgios dropped just three games in the final two sets, sealing victory after two hours and 47 minutes.

Herbert wrote in a statement — in both French and English — that he did not blame Kyrgios for the intervention, but said questions needed to be asked of umpire Lahyani.

"I did not hear the discussion between Lahyani and Nick and it did not affect me at all," the Frenchman wrote.

"Nick from his side is not to blame as he did not ask for anything. But his behaviour and motivation on court changed from this moment and then he dominated the match.

"On the other hand, after seeing the video, I am angry against the umpire.

"He should not go down of [sic] his chair and try to reason [with] Nick. Did this action affect the game? We will never know."

Herbert also hit out at the United States Tennis Association [USTA] after they released a statement siding with Lahyani, suggesting the umpire should not be sanctioned.

"I am even more upset against the statement of the USTA that is clearly taking us for fools," Herbert said.

"[To] err is human but I still wait for explanations.

"When we players are making mistakes on court we are sanctioned."

Kyrgios was also active on social media, hitting back on twitter at Croatian women's player Donna Vekic after the world number 41 weighed in on the matter, referencing that women players are able to receive on-court coaching on the WTA Tour.

'It won't happen again': Federer

Federer later advanced to the third round with a straight-sets win over Frenchman Benoit Paire, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4, confirming a Saturday showstopper with Kyrgios — almost certainly under lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, world tennis's biggest stage.

The five-time US Open champion said he did not think it was a good look, when asked about the incident after winning his match.

"It's not the umpire's role to go down from the chair, but I get what he was trying to do," the second-seeded Swiss said.

"He [Kyrgios] behaves the way he behaves. You as an umpire take a decision on the chair, do you like it or don't you like it. But you don't go and speak like that, in my opinion.

"I don't know what he said. I don't care what he said. It was not just about, 'How are you feeling?' 'Oh, I'm not feeling so well'. Go back up to the chair. He was there for too long.

"It's a conversation. Conversations can change your mindset. It can be a physio, a doctor, an umpire for that matter. That's why it won't happen again. I think everybody knows that."

Asked after the match what the umpire was saying to him when he trailed by a set and a break, Kyrgios said: "He was just concerned about how I was playing, like, 'Nick are you okay?'

"I know what I was doing out there wasn't good. I wasn't really listening to him [Lahyani]. Didn't help me at all.

"He [Herbert] let me back into that set. He should have just served it out.

"I stayed out here in the second set. I had no real choice."

Millman, de Minaur also progress

Elsewhere at the US Open, Australian John Millman scored one of the biggest wins of his career to charge into the third round.

Millman, the world number 55, upset 14th-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to progress to the last 32 for the second straight year at Flushing Meadows.

A winner over Kyrgios last year, Millman was thrilled to embark on another great run in the Big Apple.

The Queenslander's victory set up a clash with unseeded Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin, himself a surprise straight-sets winner over Korean young gun Hyeon Chung.

Victory over the world number 84 would catapult Millman into a last-16 showdown with either Kyrgios or 20-time grand slam champion Roger Federer.

Alex de Minaur also made a fuss-free entry to the third round.

The teenage ace could hardly have been more impressive in taking out highly rated young American Frances Tiafoe 6-4, 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 to reach the last 32 for the second successive grand slam.

"I had to play my best tennis today," de Minaur said.

"All credit to Frances, I just had to be very tough throughout the whole match and try to keep my concentration and not get down on myself and always stay positive.

De Minaur next plays Croatian seventh seed Marin Cilic, the 2014 champion, who easily dispatched Polish qualifier Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0, 6-0.

Matt Ebden and Ajla Tomljanovic both lost.

In a high-quality thriller, Tomljanovic missed a match point deep in the third set of a 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4) defeat at the hands of Czech doubles specialist Katerina Siniankova, while Ebden ran of steam against Philipp Kohlschreiber, going out 6-7 (1-7), 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 to the German.

Wozniacki humbled as other women's seeds progress

Second seed Caroline Wozniacki fell to a straight sets defeat to world number 36, Ukranian Lesia Tsurenko.

This year's Australian Open champion was humbled 6-4, 6-2 on the Louis Armstrong stadium show court in the evening session.

Elsewhere in the women's draw, the majority of the seeds continued their progression with minimal fuss, although fourth seed Angelique Kerber did need three sets to see off Swede Johanna Larsson 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

Fifth seed Petra Kvitova dispatched Chinese world number 79 Yafan Wang in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3 and last years finalist Madison Keys breezed past fellow countrywoman Bernarda Pera in just 72 minutes, 6-4, 6-1.

However there was disappointment for 11th-seed Daria Kasatkina and Canadian favourite Eugenie Bouchard, who both bowed out in straight sets to Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Marketa Vondrousova respectively.

By: abc.net.au