World No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium and Venus Williams of the US eased into the quarterfinals of the Dubai Women's Open on Wednesday.
Henin-Hardenne topped wild card Selima Sfar of Tunisia 6-1, 7-5, while the second-seeded Williams, playing her first competitive match in three weeks, beat Alicia Molik of Australia 6-3, 6-4.
Also, Eleni Daniilidou of Greece knocked out third-seeded American Jennifer Capriati 6-4, 7-6 (2) in the US$585,000 tournament.
Henin-Hardenne had little trouble against the 154th-ranked Tunisian, who appeared nervous in the first set, winning only one game courtesy of two double faults on deuce at 3-0.
Sfar managed to break the top seed in the opening game of the second set and made it 2-0 with a nicely judged drop volley.
Henin-Hardenne saved a break point with a fierce serve to Sfar's forehand and clinched the game with a well-executed backhand volley winner down the line.
Williams broke Molik once in each set en route to her victory.
"I feel really blessed that I was able to do that today," said Williams, who returned to the WTA circuit at the Australian Open after a six-month injury layoff.
Williams will face Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals. The Russian beat Anca Barna of Germany 6-4, 6-3 in the second round.
Capriati, also coming back from injury, saved three match points at 5-3 in the second set before succumbing to Daniilidou in her first match of the season.
It was Daniilidou's first victory in four matches against Capriati.
In other matches, fourth-seeded Anastasia Myskina of Russia defeated Magui Serna of Spain 6-1, 6-4; fifth-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan beat Nicole Pratt of Australia 6-2, 6-2; and eighth-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain overpowered Maria Elena Camerin of Italy 6-2, 6-2.
Open 13
Top-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain was eliminated from the US$742,000 Open 13 tournament in a stunning first-round upset Wednesday by Gregory Carraz of France, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (3), 6-3.
Ferrero, the world No. 2 and French Open champion, forced two tiebreakers before succumbing in the third set.
Carraz played a strong game, serving 27 aces while double-faulting four times. He said Ferrero forced him to remain concentrated on each ball.
"It helped me having played him in Bangkok last year," Carraz said.
The tournament's second seed, Guillermo Coria of Argentina, beat Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 7-6 (2), 6-3, while fourth-seeded Max Mirnyi of Belarus defeated Andrei Pavel of Romania 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5.
Sixth-seeded Albert Costa of Spain also won, downing Hicham Arazi of Morocco 7-6 (6), 7-6 (2).
In a faceoff between two Swedes, Robin Soderling defeated Thomas Enqvist, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1), who has won the Open 13 title three times, most recently in 2002.
In other matches, Marc Rosset of Switzerland defeated Davide Sanguinetti of Italy 6-1, 7-6 (4); Cyril Saulnier of France easily overcame Julian Knowle of Austria 6-1, 6-3; and Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia beat Nicolas Mahut of France 6-3, 7-5.
Brasil Open
Third-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and fourth-seeded Agustin Calleri of Argentina advanced to the quarterfinals of the US$380,000 Brasil Open.
Kuerten outran 17-year-old Richard Gasquet of France to win 7-6 (3), 6-3 Wednesday. Gasquet suffered from muscle strains in the second set.
Calleri defeated Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-4, 6-4.
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