Castano v Smashnova in World-Shaking Budapest Semis

Castano, ranked a career-high No.35 in the world and the top seed at a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event for the very first time, recovered from the loss of an intense first set to hold off Aravane Rezai, 67(9) 61 63. The French teenager, who just recently made her Top 100 debut, has been on fire this year, posting a 41-17 record coming into this event, and although many of those wins have come on the ITF Women's Circuit, she has notched victories over the likes of Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Michaella Krajicek and Ai Sugiyama; last week, she reached her first ever Tour quarterfinal at another clay court event Palermo.

But Castano has also been playing the most solid tennis of her career this year. This will be her sixth quarterfinal of the season; she reached the semifinals at Canberra and has been a quarterfinalist four times, including at Charleston, her first quarterfinal at a Tier I. The Colombian also has some good wins this year, including over Groenefeld and Nicole Vaidisova.

Next up for Castano will be No.8-seeded Smashnova, who advanced to the last eight on Wednesday. The Israeli is 2-0 lifetime against the Colombian, both meetings coming in 2005, winning in three sets in the early rounds of Istanbul and easily, 62 62, in the championship final at this event.

Also winning second round matches on Thursday were Italian rising star Romina Oprandi, who beat No.4 seed Iveta Benesova, 75 64; No.5 seed Lourdes Dom�uez Lino, who held off Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka, 76(5) 64; and another Czech qualifier, Eva Birnerova, who beat Kaia Kanepi, 62 64.

Smashnova, Krajicek, Martina Muller and Sara Errani all won second round matches on Wednesday.

Friday's quarterfinals will feature the aforementioned Castano-Smashnova clash, as well as Krajicek against Errani, Dom�uez Lino against Oprandi and Muller against Birnerova.
-- WTA