No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic battled from a first-set bagel to outlast qualifier Elise Mertens as she needed two hours and seven minutes to seal her berth into the quarter-finals of the WTA International Mallorca Open in Spain.
Jankovic, who has been going through the worst season of her career, appeared clueless in the first set before she broke her Belgian opponent twice each in the remaining two sets to enter her maiden quarter-final in 2016.
Moving on to the last-eight stage, the Serbian warhorse is slated to lock horns with Romanian qualifier Sorana Cirstea, who recorded a clinical 6-3 6-4 conquest of Slovak wildcard Daniela Hantuchova in the other second-round encounter.
No. 8 seed Eugenie Bouchard, however, crashed out of the tournament following a 6-3 6-3 surprise from Latvian journeywoman Anastasija Sevastova.
Bouchard, a former Wimbledon runner-up, looked rusty throughout the match, committing as many as eight doubles faults besides failing to hold on to her serve on five different occasions, as she stumbled to a stunning loss after a 72-minute battle.
Elsewhere, Germany’s Sabine Lisicki also bowed out after squandering a one-set lead, as she went down 6-1 3-6 4-6 to Colombian Mariana Duque-Marino.
