Agnes Szavay Battles Through To Bad Gastein Quarterfinals

The final 8 are set at the Gastein Ladies and the players that made it this far are
three seeds, two qualifiers and a wildcard. The Tier III, $175,000 tournament, which has been plagued by frequent rain, kicked off without delay on Day 5 but after a tough day of five three-set singles matches there was disappointment for two of the remaining seeds.

It was a grueling, three-hour battle but No.1 seed Agnes Szavay managed to book her place in the Gastein Ladies last eight, Melanie Klaffner, 36 76(8) 76(3). Agnes trailed a service break in both the second and third sets and was a point from defeat, but Klaffner wasn't quite able to pull off a major upset in front of her home crowd.

"It was a very tough match," said a visibly relieved Szavay. "Melanie played unbelievable tennis and didn't want to give anything up. I'm glad I managed to fight back and win the match."

While No.1 seed Szavay was able to escape with a victory on Friday, the same couldn't be said for No.3 seed Caroline Wozniacki, falling to Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva in another match decided by a third-set tie-break, 64 46 76(5).

The finalist of last week's Palermo event, Koryttseva is in top form and has moved from outside the Top 100 at the start of the season to No.60. In the quarterfinals she faces qualifier Tereza Hladikova, who beat Budapest semifinalist Karolina Sprem, 63 16 64. Ranked No.260, Hladikova may have a fight on her hands against the determined Ukrainian.

No.7 seed Iveta Benesova was also locked in a tense battle, edging past doubles partner Galina Voskoboeva, 64 46 61. Now with a 4-0 lifetime series lead, Benesova has beaten the Russian once a year since 2005. This will be Benesova's fourth quarterfinal on Tour this season, having finished runner-up at Estoril and as a quarterfinalist at Acapulco and Prague. On Saturday she will face No.1 seed Szavay.

No.4 seed Pauline Parmentier is through to the last eight after a match that lasted over two hours against wildcard and former world No.14 Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Parmentier is one of only three seeds through to the quarterfinals, with the remaining seeds all in the top half of the draw.

Another qualifier who's through to the quarters is Lucie Hradecka, who swiftly beat No.5 seed Timea Bacsinszky, 61 64. It was a disappointing defeat for Bacsinszky, who reached the semifinals at Strasburg in May. Hradecka will battle it out on Saturday against Austrian wildcard Patricia Mayr for a place in the semifinals, which are also scheduled to be played on Saturday due to the rain-induced backlog of matches.

Four Czechs clashed in a doubles quarterfinal, with No.3 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka defeating Lucie Safarova and Klara Zakopalova, 60 62.

The No.1 double seeds are out after a gripping final set, with Brit Sarah Borwell and American Courtney Nagle beating Benesova and Janette Husarova, 46 63 1311.

The comeback of Sandra Klemenschits, making her first appearance since beating a rare form of cancer, was ended in the quarterfinals by Xu Yi-Fan and Zhang Shuai; Klemenschits and German Marlene Weingärtner fell to the Chinese duo, 62 75.


Article from www.wtatour.com
Photo credit should read GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images