TORONTO, Canada - Day 4 at the Rogers Cup presented by American Express saw the Top 5 seeds left in the draw all make it through to Friday's quarterfinals. Among the winners at the $1,340,000, Tier I event were No.1 seed Justine Henin and No.2 Jelena Jankovic, who both came through their third round encounters with straight-set victories.
Henin, the world No.1, is appearing in her first tournament of this summer's North American hardcourt swing and after a routine second round win on Wednesday, she was made to work considerably harder to get past Peng Shuai of China. Indeed the 25-year-old Belgian struggled with her lower-ranked opponents hard hitting at first, slipping into an early 3-1 deficit, before recovering to edge a close first set. The second set proved to be somewhat more straightforward and after 1 hour, 49 minutes, Henin wrapped up a 75 62 victory to post her 40th win of the season.
"It was tough out there with all the wind," Henin said, "especially when you haven't played many matches. In these conditions, you really have to concentrate on every point and stay calm. I began to feel more confident in the second set and was a little more relaxed and I started to deal with the conditions better which helped me to up my level."
On the other side of the draw, high-flying Jankovic made short work of No.13 seed Sybille Bammer, recording her fifth career win over the Austrian, with a 62 63 triumph. The 22-year-old Serb has looked in imperious form at the Rexall Centre this week and next in the line of fire will be unseeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano, who scored a shock, 64 63, win over No.11 seed Shahar Peer on Thursday.
It was a mixed day for the three remaining Russians in the Toronto draw, as Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova eased through in straight sets, while Dinara Safina was sent crashing out. No.3 seed Kuznetsova has been one of the most consistent performers on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour this year and her 63 62 win over Meghann Shaughnessy saw the 2004 US Open champion reach her 10th quarterfinal of the year.
"I started playing much better today," Kuznetsova said, "I think it was a more consistent performance. The last match I played there were several ups and downs because I couldn't maintain my concentration, but after a long break, I think this is maybe to be expected. Today I was focused for 100% of the match, so I'm really happy with the performance and looking forward to tomorrow's match."
Kuznetsova's next opponent will come in the form of No.12 seed Tatiana Golovin, who dismissed Francesca Schiavone, 62 60, to notch up her third straight-sets victory this week.
Petrova was another player put in an impressive display on Thursday, overcoming the in-form Patty Schnyder, 64 61. The No.6-seeded Russian was a runner-up last week in Los Angeles and her reward for this win is a match-up with top seed, Henin - a player she has beaten just twice in their 12 career meetings to date. Unfortunately for the Russian fans in Canada's most populous city, No.9 seed Safina could not follow her compatriots into the quarterfinals, losing a see-saw encounter with No.7 Marion Bartoli, 62 67(2) 60.
Meeting France's Bartoli in the final eight will be Chinese qualifier Yan Zi, who won a thrilling three-set match against Eleni Daniilidou to reach her first Tour quarterfinal for more than a year. Yan defeated reigning champion Ana Ivanovic in the previous round and when she held two match points at 63 53 it appeared the world No.169 was all set for her third consecutive straight-set win. However, her Greek opponent showed tremendous spirit to stave off these match points and extend the contest to a final set. The decider was a tense affair and Daniilidou manufactured four match points of her own, before the Chinese No.7 recovered to win their three-hour marathon, 63 57 76(5).
Yan's day got even better later in the afternoon when she advanced into the quarterfinals of the doubles competition with Peng, by virtue of a 75 61 defeat of Agnes Szavay and Vladimira Uhlirova. Kuznetsova and Petrova were two more singles winners to repeat the trick on the doubles court, as they joined forces to see of Ukrainian sisters Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko, 26 62 103. One quarterfinal also took place on Thursday and it saw the No.3 seeds, Alicia Molik and Mara Santangelo, overcome Maria Elena Camerin and Gisela Dulko, 64 63. (WTA)
