Anne shocks eighth seed to book quarter-final spot
British No.1 cruises past Suarez Navarro…
Anne Keothavong made it two wins in as many days to secure a quarter-final place at the ASB Classic in New Zealand on Wednesday.
The Englishwoman shocked eighth seed and world No.46 Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-4 to record her second successive straight sets victory at the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour hard court event in Auckland.
Twenty-four hours earlier Keothavong had begun her season by beating former Wimbledon semi-finalist Mirjana Lucic and she continued her form against her Spanish second round opponent, who made the quarter-finals at the French Open last year.
Keothavong was effective with her returns throughout the one hour, 24 minute encounter, breaking her opponent six times.
The Hackney right-hander’s reward is a quarter-final meeting with young Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita, who put out Canadian fourth seed Aleksandra Wozniak on day three.
They are scheduled as the third match on Centre Court on Thursday after an 11am start local time.
“I’m really pleased to get through another match here in Auckland against a higher ranked opponent,” Anne said.
“I felt I was the more aggressive player today in tricky conditions. The wind picked up towards the end of the first set and there were several breaks of serve in the second set.
“I’m not sure I agree with the on-court coaching that is now allowed at WTA tournaments but I made use of it and got my coach Nigel Sears to run on court for his daily bit of exercise. He assured me that what I was trying to do was right.
“Tomorrow’s match will be completely different to today’s. I’ve played Morita before but she’s obviously got better with each match here and is playing with a lot of confidence.
“I just need to stay focused on myself and what I have to do and hopefully the result will take care of itself.”
Elsewhere, top seed Elena Dementieva cruised past local favourite Marina Erakovic and second seed Caroline Wozniacki was too good for American Jill Craybas, but a total of five seeds crashed out of the $220,000 tournament on an eventful third day.
Wednesday results
(1) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. Marina Erakovic (NZL) 62 63
(2) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. Jill Craybas ( USA ) 64 75
Edina Gallovits (ROU) d. (3) Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) 63 63
(Q) Ayumi Morita (JPN) d. (4) Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) 75 62
(5) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) 63 46 62
Elena Vesnina (RUS) d. (6) Nicole Vaidisova (CZE) 64 63
Aravane Rezai (FRA) d. (7) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 62 63
Anne Keothavong (GBR) d. (8) Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) 62 64
Order of Play – Thursday, January 8, 2009
Centre Court (from 11.00hrs)
1. Gallovits vs. Rezai
2. Dementieva vs. Peer (NB 12.00hrs)
3. Keothavong vs. Morita
4. Gallovits/Hrdinova vs. Dechy/Santangelo
5. Vesnina vs. Wozniacki (NB 19.30hrs)
6. Llagostera Vives/Parra Santonja vs. Chan/Pavlyuchenkova