Defending champion Tamarine Tanasugarn entered the quarterfinals of the WTA Indian Open tennis tournament by thrashing Israeli teenager Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-2 in the second round Wednesday.
Joining the third-seeded Tamarine in the quarterfinals was second-seeded Marion Bartoli of France, who posted a 6-2, 6-4 victory over lowly ranked Russian Galina Fokina.
Fourth-seeded Australian Nicole Pratt ran into a determined challenge from Adriana Serra Zanetti of Italy before prevailing 7-6 (6), 6-2, while fifth-seeded Jelena Kostanic of Croatia had an easy 6-1, 6-3 win against Russia's Vera Douchevina.
Unfancied Angelique Widjaja of Indonesia knocked out seventh-seeded Italian Maria Elena Camerin 6-3, 6-4 and Mervana Jugic-Salkic of Bosnia-Herzegovina stunned eighth-seeded Slovak Lubomira Kurhajcova 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-3.
Sixth-seeded Jie Zheng of China stopped the trend by defeating Bulgaria's Tatiana Poutchek 6-3, 6-2.
Staying on course for her second WTA Tour title, Tamarine, 26, swept aside the challenge from Peer, the Australian Open junior girls champion who has advanced to the 487th ranking from 875 a year ago.
The second-seeded Bartoli, at 53 the highest ranked player left in the tournament after the exit of top-seeded Saori Obata in the opening round, made a fine start with her deep, powerful ground-strokes causing problems for Fokina, who is ranked 203rd.
Bartoli, 19, was surprised by a resurgent Fokina who matched her rival point for point in the second set.
"I had problems against left-hander Fokina," said Bartoli, admitting that the score-line did not reflect the intensity of the contest.
Bartoli broke her opponent in the first and third games of the second set but lost her serve in between.
Both held their serves in the next seven games but the winner had to work hard as Fokina produced some fine drop shots and down-the-line winners.
"I had to adjust my pace, and felt really tired by the end," Bartoli said.
Kostanic made the last-eight round for the first time in four tournaments this year by winning a duel of sharp rallies against Douchevina.
Kostanic, 23, rushed through the first set as Douchevina held her service just once, and broke her again in the third game for a 2-1 lead in the second set.
Douchevina returned the break in the next game by forcing her higher ranked rival to commit mistakes.
But Kostanic used her predominant forehand to good effect, reeling off a dozen down-the-line winners to put the issue beyond Douchevina, whose game deteriorated toward the end.
Douchevina began the ninth game with a double fault, netted easy rallies and committed another double fault to bow out in a disappointing manner.
Diamond Games
World No. 2 Kim Clijsters swept into the quarterfinals of the Diamond Games on Wednesday, beating qualifier Arantxa Parra of Spain 6-3, 6-2.
Clijsters' road to a possible final against fellow Belgian and world No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne was made easier when third-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia pulled out of the tournament with a shoulder injury just hours ahead of her first match.
With Dementieva gone, the top player Clijsters can now face in her half of the draw is Bulgaria's Magdalena Maleeva, ranked 21st in the world.
Joining Clijsters in Friday's quarterfinals were eighth-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy, Czech qualifier Klara Koukalova and Croatian teenager Karolina Sprem.
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