World No.1 Esther Vergeer led the way, the 27-year-old producing an utterly dominant performance as she ousted Japanese eighth seed Mie Yaosa 6-0 6-0.
Bidding for her eighth successive British Open title this year, Vergeer made Yaosa the 338th successive opponent she has beaten since her last loss at the end of January 2003.
She now goes on to face third seed Sharon Walraven, who also secured a comfortable quarter-final victory, an exquisite backhand slice down the line completing her 6-1 6-3 victory over young compatriot and world No.7 Aniek Van Koot.
Meanwhile, world No.2 Korie Homan converted her second match point to beat world No. 5 Florence Gravellier of France, the highest ranked non-Dutch player the world, 6-0 6-3. Homan now has world No.3 Jiske Griffioen between her and a second successive British Open final after Griffioen won the last three games of her quarter-final to fend off Belgian sixth seed Annick Sevenans 6-0 6-3.
Elsewhere on Thursday British Men’s No.1 David Phillipsson (pictured) edged through his quarter-final in the Men’s Main Draw Consolation Singles to beat Australian Michael Dobbie 6-4 6-4.
Phillipson broke the Australian to go 3-1 up in the first set, only for Dobbie to draw level at 3-3. But after securing another break to go 5-3 ahead, Phillipson maintained the advantage and served out the first set on his second set point.
The second set was even closer with several games going to deuce, but Phillipson eventually secured the vital break in the last two games and progresses to an extremely tough semi-final against Belgian top seed Joachim Gerard.
There was disappointment for Phillipson in the Men’s Main Draw Doubles as he and fellow Briton Gordon Reid lost out to fourth seeds Frederic Cattaneo of France and Martin Legner of Austria in the quarter-finals.
The completion of first round matches in the Women’s Doubles saw Britain’s Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley put up a determined performance to take Australia’s Daniela di Toro and Ilanit Fridman of Israel to three sets.
Di Toro and Fridman made the most of an early break to take the first set 6-3, but Shuker and Whiley played superbly to take a 5-3 second set lead before forcing a tie-break. The British duo moved 3-0 up in the tie-break and subsequently converted the first of four set points to level the match. However, di Toro and Shuker gradually got back on top in the third and deciding set before closing out a 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-2 victory.
British second seeds Jamie Burdekin and Peter Norfolk got their Quad Doubles bid off to a successful start with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Monique de Beer of the Netherlands and Italy’s Antonio Raffaele. Burdekin and Norfolk will play Dutch third seeds Bas Van Erp and Dorrie Timmermans in the semi-finals.
Play begins at 10.00am and entry is FREE to all spectators throughout the tournament.