STANFORD, CA, USA - Anna Chakvetadze maintained her perfect start to the summer on Thursday evening in Stanford, winning her sixth match in six attempts to reach the quarters of the Bank of the West Classic.
Chakvetadze, the No.1 seed, improved to 6-0 on summer hardcourts after a 64 61 win over Greece's Eleni Daniilidou. Daniilidou was ahead by 4-2 early on when Chakvetadze began painting the lines with her trademark pinpoint groundstrokes, reeling off seven games to go up a set and 3-0 in the second. After that stretch the final result seemed a foregone conclusion as the Russian held her serve to close out the one-hour, 14-minute win over the former Top 15 player.
Slow starts have been common for Chakvetadze since she left the grass court season behind her, but they haven't gotten in the way of victory. Last week in Cincinnati, she was behind 4-0 in the first set of her opener then 2-0 in the first set of her second one, but won both in straight sets. In the quarterfinals she lost the first set but roared back to win in three over countrywoman Elena Vesnina.
Next for the tournament favorite will be No.7-seeded Katarina Srebotnik, with whom she has split two career meetings, losing a nail-biting three set match in Antwerp two years ago but prevailing in straight sets at Linz last October.
Also in Chakvetadze's half of the draw are No.3-seeded Daniela Hantuchova and Olga Govortsova. Govortsova, a qualifier into the main draw, stunned No.5 seed Shahar Peer in the first match Thursday, 46 75 62. Peer showed her fighting spirit in the early stages, rallying back from 4-2 down in the first set and nearly coming back from 4-2 and 5-3 down in the second. But when Govortsova finally ended the second set the floodgates opened and she cruised to victory in the decider.
In just her fifth Sony Ericsson WTA Tour main draw last week, Govortsova made the quarterfinals at the Tier III in Cincinnati; now with her career-first win over a Top 20 player, she reaches another quarterfinal, this time at the Tier II level.
Hantuchova and Govortsova have met once, in the second round of Birmingham. A much less experienced Govortsova would lost routinely in straight sets.
No.4 seed Patty Schnyder and Sania Mirza both earned straight set wins to set up a quarterfinal clash. Schnyder let go of an early 4-2 lead but regrouped to press on, beating qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova, 75 62; Mirza was in total control from start to finish against Tatiana Golovin, sending the No.6 seed packing, 64 61.
"I saw her in her first round match against Vakulenko but I saw the part where she was losing so I assumed she was better than what I saw," Schnyder said on Shvedova. "She plays so loose from the backhand and has a good serve and she's a really good player. I was focusing on my serve, and putting pressure on her with it; it really worked for me today."
In their only previous meeting, Schnyder beat Mirza in the Cincinnati quarterfinal round last year, 76(7) 75, but the Indian starlet held set point in the first set.
"I hear she's playing great; with that forehand I'm definitely going to be hitting to the backhand, and my lefty serve that should help. She's definitely dangerous."
No.8-seeded mother-on-Tour Sybille Bammer and wild card Lilia Osterloh contest the other quarterfinal, after both won second round matches on Wednesday. Osterloh was a surprise three set winner over Marion Bartoli, the No.2 seed and recent finalist at Wimbledon, under the lights Wednesday evening.
Two more doubles quarterfinals were also played on Thursday, with No.3 seeds Mirza and Peer and unseeded Hsieh Su-Wei and Alla Kudryavtseva reaching the semis. No.1 seeds Katarina Srebotnik and Ai Sugiyama will play their quarterfinal Friday, with Akiko Morigami and Meilen Tu across the net. Chakvetadze and Victoria Azarenka won the first doubles quarterfinal on Wednesday. (WTA)
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