Pattaya: Two-time champion Vera Zvonareva of Russia squandered two match points and lost 6-2, 6-7 (6/8), 5-7 to New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic in the quarter-finals of the PTT Thailand Open yesterday.
Marina Erakovic
Former world No.2 Zvonareva comfortably won the first set 6-2 and had two match points at 6-5 in the second at the Dusit Thani.
However, Erakovic fought back to make it 6-6 and went on to win the tiebreak.
In the third set, they were locked at 5-5 before the New Zealander finished off the Russian by winning the next two games.
In today’s semi-finals, Erakovic will meet Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova, another two-time champion.
In the quarter-finals, Hantuchova had few problems against China’s Duan Ying Ying, winning 6-3, 6-0.
Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia beat Evgeniya Rodina of Russia 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 and will face Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig in the semi-finals.
Seventh seed Puig defeated Japanese Misaki Doi 6-4, 6-2 in the last eight.
In Antwerp, top seed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada and second seed Angelique Kerber of Germany lost in the second round of the Diamond Games on Thursday.
Bouchard double-faulted nine times in a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 defeat to Germany’s Mona Barthel, while qualifier Francesca Schiavone — a former French Open champion — needed less than an hour to beat Kerber 6-1, 6-1.
Schiavone next plays fifth seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain in the quarter-finals, after she rallied past Monica Niculescu 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.
Fourth seed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, sixth seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia and eighth seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic advanced to the quarter-finals.
Safarova beat France’s Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 6-1, Cibulkova downed Dutch qualifier Indy de Vroome 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 and Pliskova won 6-3, 6-3 over Germany’s Annika Beck.
Monica Puig
Daniela Hantuchova