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Davenport, Schnyder Into Bali Quarters
Posted on September 15, 2006
BALI, Indonesia -- Defending champion Lindsay Davenport and No.2 seed Patty Schnyder paved their way to the quarterfinals of the Wismilak International. Davenport improved her record here to 6-0 with a 62 63 victory over Akiko Morigami. Schnyder advanced with a 64 61 win over Elise Tamaela.
Getting better with each match, Davenport proved too powerful from the baseline for the Japanese two-hander, although the American veteran struggled with her serve at times.
"It was definitely a better match than my first round," Davenport said. "I think I'm improving as the week progresses. My serve wasn't consistently good through the whole match, so that's something I'll need to work on, but Morigami is a very good player. She hits a nice ball, so it was a good match for me to play."
Davenport will next play 28-year-old Czech Hana Sromova for the first time. The former world No.1 collected the title here last year without dropping a set and followed up with two more Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles trophies at Filderstadt and Zurich.
Schnyder made her first appearance this week in fine fashion. Tamaela, an up-and-comer from the Netherlands, started strongly, but the world No.8 was never truly threatened.
"I thought I played a pretty good first match," said Schnyder, who is now up against Melinda Czink. "My serve was working really well. She's a very talented young player, and I think she'll be in the Top 100 very soon."
Schnyder retired during the semifinals here last year due to heat illness, and attributed it to poor preparation.
"I think the problem last year was that I didn't eat enough during the week," Schnyder said. "It's so warm here that I didn't feel that hungry. But this year I've made sure I'm better prepared. I'm feeling a lot better here than I was last year."
"I thought I made a good start in the match," said world No.154 Tamaela. "I was playing quite level with her at the beginning, but then my serve started to go down a bit. She's a top player and they just roll over you as soon as you start to show a weakness, but it was a good experience for me."
In the top half of the draw, Severine Bremond defeated Sandy Gumulya, 63 76(6), to set up a first meeting with top seed and two-time champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. The Frenchwoman, who upset Schnyder this year en route to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, went into the match an overwhelming favorite against the Indonesian qualifier barely ranked inside the Top 400. But Gumulya put up a good fight. She twice served for the second set, at 5-4 and 6-5, and even held a set point, but Bremond's experience prevailed in the end.
Olga Poutchkova, who eliminated 2006 US Open Series champion Ana Ivanovic in the first round, reached her first Tour quarterfinal with a 75 63 win over Slovenian qualifier Andreja Klepac. She will next face No.6 seed Marion Bartoli. The Frenchwoman beat Poutchkova two weeks ago in straight sets at the US Open.
In doubles, top seeds Maria Vento-Kabchi and Angelique Widjaja defeated all-Indonesian pair Vivien Silfany and Lavinia Tananta, 64 64, Thursday to enter the semifinals. Morigami and Aiko Nakamura ousted No.3 seeds Czink and Shikha Uberoi, 75 36 63.
-- WTA
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