Patty Schnyder advances to Bank of West quarters

Patty Schnyder continued her impressive march through the early rounds here, eliminating Russian Alisa Kleybanova 7-6 (10/8), 6-4 in the second round of the hardcourt event.

Schnyder had her best effort here two years ago, when she reached the final before falling to the now-retired Kim Clijsters of Belgium.

The 29-year-old also reached the semi-finals in 2005 and was a quarter-finalist both last season and in 2004.

Standing between the 13th-ranked Schnyder and another trip to the round of eight was unseeded Kleybanova, who was in the midst of her best season to date.

But Schnyder, who won the previous meeting between the two in the first round at Gold Coast at the beginning of the season, battled through a tough first-set tiebreaker en route to victory on Thursday.

With the win, Schnyder booked a quarter-final showdown with top-seeded American Serena Williams, who is 32-4 with three titles this year.

Defending champion Anna Chakvetadze of Russia reached the quarters on Wednesday.

The second seed will take on No. 6 Marion Bartoli, who eliminated British qualifier Anne Keothavong 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, on Thursday.

Bartoli has battled injury and inconsistent play since her run to the Wimbledon final in 2007 and recently lost her status as a top-10 player, dropping to No. 15.

The 23-year-old Frenchwoman, who has yet to appear in a final this year, improved to just 14-16 in 2008.

The only other seeded player slated for second-round action Thursday is No. 3 Vera Zvonareva, who will square off with Australian lucky loser Samantha Stosur.

The winner of the match between Zvonareva and Stosur will face Canadian qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak, who topped Austria's Sybille Bammer on Thursday, 6-4, 7-5.


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