Ivanovic Stunned; Henin, Jankovic Advance in Stuttgart

Ivanovic, seeded No.5 and last week's Luxembourg champion, came out on the losing end of a streaky 62 16 63 decision against qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko. After a pair of lopsided sets that lasted half an hour apiece, give or take a few minutes, the two women levelled out on serve through the first seven games of the third. But Ivanovic squandered a point to keep things that way serving at 3-4, giving up the first break of the set, and Bondarenko subsequently served the stunner out.

"I'm definitely very disappointed," Ivanovic said afterwards. "I felt good coming here. Kateryna played amazing and very aggressively and had all the answers to my game. I was emotionally very flat. Yesterday took a lot out of me; it was as if I was playing another final. It was very hard to find my rhythm."

Although Bondarenko was winless in six prior matches with the world's Top 10, she had shown flashes of brilliance, pushing Svetlana Kuznetsova to three sets on two separate occasions. She had also notched her first Top 20 win earlier this summer; now with her first Top 10 win over the No.5-ranked Serb, she moves into her fifth Sony Ericsson WTA Tour quarterfinal, and second at a Tier II event.

No.8 seed Hantuchova followed Ivanovic onto the sidelines in the night match with a 64 64 loss to an unseeded Elena Dementieva. Although Dementieva was left out of the seedings and Hantuchova wasn't, the result was an upset arguably only on paper; the Russian had won eight of their 11 previous encounters.

Two seeds that were able to move ahead were No.1 seed Justine Henin and No.3 seed Jelena Jankovic. Henin reeled off 10 of the last 12 games of her match with an unseeded Dinara Safina to advance, 64 61, while Jankovic regrouped after dropping the first set to overcome another non-seed, Shahar Peer, 46 61 63.

"It's never easy to play your first match after three weeks off so I'm very happy with how I played," Henin said. "I am feeling pretty fresh, which is very good. I like it very much here; the court, the atmosphere; it's a very good tournament."

"I had no free points today," Jankovic said. "Shahar's a very tough opponent. I had to fight out there, but it was a good win. I enjoyed myself out there."

Henin will next face Dementieva while Jankovic faces No.7 seed Nadia Petrova, who crushed qualifier Michaella Krajicek in the first match of the day, 61 63.

"I haven't played against Petrova in a while," Jankovic continued. "She is a good indoor player, so I'm going to try to play my game and be aggressive."

Henin's victory was her 13th in a row, which includes 5-0 to win in Toronto and a 7-0 mark to claim the US Open. Remarkably, all of those wins are in straight sets. She has also won 29 of her last 30 matches, having won 16 straight before falling in the Wimbledon semifinals to Marion Bartoli. That 16-match winning streak was a season best on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

In the doubles draw, No.1 seeds Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs reached the semis by dismissing Krajicek and Vladimira Uhlirova, 64 63. Martina Müller and Gabriela Navratilova became the second combo into the final four after No.3 seeds Katarina Srebotnik and Francesca Schiavone withdrew due to Schiavone's right foot injury. The two remaining doubles quarterfinals, as well as all four singles quarterfinals, are on the schedule for Friday. (WTA)