Top seed and defending champion
Flavia Pennetta advanced safely into the quarterfinals Thursday at the WTA claycourt stop in Bogota, defeating 21-year-old Croatian
Ivana Abramovic 6-0, 7-5.
"I started pretty well and it was a good match for both of us," Pennetta said. "Today I had to be patient and wait for her mistakes, and even though she didn't do many, I won. I'll have the chance tomorrow to play better."
Also into the quarters were (3)
Catalina Castano (d. Gussoni), (8)
Maria Sanchez Lorenzo (d. Vierin), and unseeded American
Bethanie Mattek (d. Szavay 1-and-0).
Quarterfinal line-ups for Friday on the red clay are Pennetta vs. Mattek, Castano vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, Dominguez Lino vs. Loit, and Cervanova vs. Dulko.
"Tomorrow I'll have a difficult match because Catalina will play at home, with her people and in altitude, something usual for her and very unusual for us," Sanchez Lorenzo said. "She is playing good and she is having a great year, but I feel I am playing good tennis too. I'm in the quarters and it means I'm doing things well."
