Top-seed Marcos Baghdatis bounced back to beat Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Pilot Pen US Open hardcourt tune-up.
The Cypriot, who lost all three of his service games in the first set, rallied and broke Chela’s serve four times in the final two sets.
Baghdatis, ranked 18th in the world, has now reached the quarter-finals in four of his five starts in the US Open series of events leading up to the final Grand Slam of the year, which starts on Monday in New York.
Women’s top-seed Caroline Wozniacki cruised into the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Dominika Cibulkova.
Wozniacki, who won a rain-delayed final in Montreal on Monday, was cheered on by US football players from nearby Yale University.
The Dane had visited a team workout last year.
“That they all came and supported me today was just fun,” she said. “We should make this a tradition.”
Wozniacki, battling a sore back, trailed 4-3 in the opening set, but after receiving treatment she gave up only two points the rest of the set.
Wozniacki next faces seventh-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Olga Govortsova.
Russian fourth-seed Elena Dementieva outlasted Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, building match fitness for the US Open after tearing a left calf muscle in the French Open.
Next up for Dementieva will be French sixth seed Marion Bartoli, who ousted Australian Anastasia Rodionova 6-3, 6-1.
Russian eighth-seed Nadia Petrova also advanced, defeating American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3, 6-2 to book a date with Aussie second seed Samantha Stosur.
Maria Kirilenko and Dinara Safina booked an all-Russian quarterfinal. Kirilenko beat Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-1 and Safina downed Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/2).
The day’s men’s action began with completion of three rain-disrupted second-round matches.
Ukraine’s seventh-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov downed American James Blake 6-4, 6-2, but when he returned to the court for a third-round clash he was toppled by Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7-1), 6-2.
Troicki had completed a two-set victory over Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen earlier in the day.
Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili beat fifth-seeded Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (9/7) to reach the quarter-finals.
■SHARAPOVA UPBEAT
REUTERS, NEW YORK
Maria Sharapova, who has shot back up the rankings after a shoulder injury that almost ended her career, feels she is hitting her stride and has a chance to capture her second US Open title in four years.
After suffering a shoulder injury in 2008 that required surgery, the three-time grand slam winner spent several months on the sidelines and dropped as far as 126th in the rankings.
However, Sharapova is now ranked 16th in the world heading into the Aug. 30 to Sept. 12 tournament and said reaching the finals of two straight tournaments in recent weeks has convinced her she can snap a grand slam drought nearing three years.
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