Seventh seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova continued to make light work of her quarter, as she recorded her second consecutive straight sets win of the tournament over Swiss qualifier Stefanie Voegele 6-4, 6-0.
The seventh seed improved from her first round match against Katerina Siniakova, where she had dropped serve twice in the first set, and faced three break points in the second. That said, she still faced limited issues against Voegele. The twenty-five year old did force a single break of the Pavlyuchenkova serve in the first set, but a service percentage of below fifty percent proved to be the undoing for the world no. 163, as Pavlyuchenkova would break twice in the first to win that set.
In similar fashion to her first round win, Pavlyuchenkova would raise her game to win the second set by an emphatic scoreline, breaking three times to win through easily. In a draw that has already seen the top seed and others fall early, Pavlyuchenkova continues to avoid the same fate, and is now a heavyweight in her side. She could potentially face Caroline Wozniacki or Barb0ra Strycova in the semi finals.
First though she must negotiate Roberta Vinci’s conqueror, Aleksandra Krunic, who followed up that win with a straight sets victory over Germany’s Monica Barthel, 7-6, 6-3 . Krunic, ranked 99, claimed her second victory over higher ranked opposition this week. She dropped serve twice in the opening set, but broke twice before winning through in the tiebreak. Krunic proved dominant on first serve, dropping just three points in the match.
Johanna Larsson was another to take advantage of the absence of seeds in the top half. A day after her win over Andrea Petkovic, she defeated Alison Van Uytvanck in straight sets 6-4, 7-6. She will face American Madison Brengle, as two unseeded players fight for a place in the semi finals.
Last week saw Garbine Muguruza and Petra Kvitova confirm their place at the year ending championships in Singapore. Hopefuls Roberta Vinci, and Lucie Safarova have already lost this week, whilst Caroline Wozniacki continues her bid.
