World Number 32 Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova rallied from a set down to edge this year’s US Open champion Flavia Pennetta with 3-6 6-4 6-3 after two hours. The first set went on serve until the fifth game when Pavlyuchenkova broke for 3-2 but Pennetta broke back en route to winning four consecutive games. The Italian clinched the first set with 6-3 with an ace after 36 minutes. The Italian star won 76 percent of her first serve points and hit 4 aces.
Pavlyuchenkova played a solid second set winning 86 percent of her first serve points. In the 8th game Pennetta fought back from 15-40 to save two break points with four consecutive points but two games later Pavlyuchenkova broke to love en route to closing out the 42-minute second set with 6-4
Pavlyuchenkova went up a break to love to race out to a 3-0 lead. Pennetta did not give up and broke back for 2-3. The Russian player broke serve to love in the sixth game. Pennetta held her serve in the 8th game for 3-5 but Pavlyuchenkova sealed the win on the first match point in the ninth game after 42 minutes. Pavlyuchenkova won for the first time in her career against Pennetta who won their previous two head-to-head matches in the Roland Garros in 2008 and in Cincinnati in 2011
Timea Bacsinszky overcame a second-set loss to edge past Carla Suarez Navarro with 6-4 4-6 7-5 setting up a quarter final against Sara Errani. The Swiss player went up a set and a break but she lost six consecutive games to drop the second set. She bounced back building a 4-2 lead in the third set with a break of serve but Suarez Navarro broke back to draw level to 5-5. Bacsinszky won the final two games to clinch the third set with 7-5.
Bacsinszky enjoyed a great spring winning two back-to-back tournaments in Monterrey and Acapulco before reaching the semifinals at the Roland Garros. She went on to reach the quarter finals at Wimbledon but lost her last four matches before the China Open.
The Lausanne player beat her quarter final rival Errani in three sets with 6-0 4-6 7-6 in their only previous head-to-head match in Monterrey earlier this year.
Bethanie Mattek Sands overcame this year’s US Open finalist Roberta Vinci 6-1 3-6 6-2. The US player raced out to a 3-0 lead with a break of serve. Vinci held her serve to win her first game for 1-3.. Mattek Sands played a great tennis producing a series of inside-in forehands and stop-volleys and cruised to winning the first set with 6-1. Vinci held her serve in the first game of the second set before converting the second of her three break points to take a 2-0 lead. Mattek Sands broke back but dropped her serve to go down 1-3. Vinci held her service game to pull away to 5-1. Mattek Sands recovered one of the breaks for 3-5 but Vinci sealed the second set on her first set point with her forehand after 36 minutes.
Mattek Sands went up a break in the 20-point fourth game of the third set on her third break point opportunity. Mattek Sands saved five break point chances in the third set and broke serve in the 8th game on the third match point after 1 hour and 43 minutes