Agence France-Presse
Top seed Elena Dementieva beat local favourite Marina Erakovic to grab a quarter-final spot in the ASB Classic here Wednesday as other seeds tumbled out of the women's tournament.
Top seed Elena Dementieva beat local favourite Marina Erakovic to grab a quarter-final spot in the ASB Classic here Wednesday as other seeds tumbled out of the women's tournament.
The world number four and Olympic champion beat the New Zealander 6-2, 6-3 as five of the eight seeds fell in second round matches.
Erakovic's already slim chances of beating Dementieva were further hampered by abdominal and neck strains and she required an extended medical break at 3-4 down in the second set.
Dementieva's victory sets up a quarter-final clash with fifth-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer on Thursday.
The Russian said the match against Erakovic had been difficult because of the overwhelming crowd support for her opponent.
"I think we had a good fight in the first set and I played a little better than yesterday and this is what I need, just to improve and keep playing better tennis in every round," she said afterwards.
Second seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark also had a smooth passage into the last eight with a 6-4, 7-5 win over American veteran Jill Craybas.
But most of the seeded players fell by the wayside in defeats to less fancied opponents.
Fourth-seeded Canadian Alexsandra Wozniak went down 7-5, 6-2 to Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita and Romanian Edina Gallovits scored a 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 shock win over third seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain.
Other players to go down included Czech sixth seed Nicole Vaidisova, Russian seventh seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Spanish eighth seed Carla Suarez Navarro.
Pavlyuchenkova, 17, the tournament's youngest player, was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai, who was runner-up in the tournament last year.
Source:
http://sport.id.msn.com
Source:
http://sport.id.msn.com