Five of the top 8 in the world have reached the quarterfinals today at the Rome WTA Tier 1 stop including Serena and Venus Williams.
This the second time during the 2008 clay-court season that Alize Cornet and Serena Williams will face off at a Tier I Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event. Their first and only previous meeting was at Charleston in April, when Williams defeated the 18-year-old Cornet in the semis en route to winning the title.
Maria Sharapova is going for her 300th career singles match win. She enters Friday’s quarterfinals with a 299-68 career win-loss record. By reaching the third round this week, the 21-year-old Russian has passed the $12-million prize money mark and is No.12 on the all-time list of career prize money leaders.
Tsvetana Pironkova is making her debut in a Tier I quarterfinal. This is also her first quarterfinal in 2008. Before this week, she had not passed the second round this season. She notched a career-first Top 3 win over world No.3 Ana Ivanovic on Wednesday.
Russia and the United States are tied with most representatives in the quarterfinals this week with two players each.
Defending champion Jelena Jankovic never made it past the second round in her first three appearances at Rome, but in 2006, she snapped out of a 10-match losing streak, winning three matches before falling to Venus Williams in three sets. In 2007, she went all the way to the title without dropping a single set.
Jankovic, Serena Williams, the 2002 Rome champion, and Venus Williams, the 1999 champion, are the only former champions in the main draw. Patty Schnyder, a Rome finalist in 2005, is the only former runner-up remaining in the draw after Svetlana Kuznetsova, last year’s runner-up, lost on Thursday.
Qualifiers Pironkova and Cornet are making their debuts at this tournament.
Anna Chakvetadze is making her first quarterfinal appearance at this event.
Both Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have reached the quarterfinals or better at all six events they have contested in 2008. Sharapova won titles at the Australian Open, the Tier I event at Doha and Amelia Island, her first title on clay. She lost in the semis at the Tier I event at Indian Wells and the quarters at the Tier I event at Charleston, where she lost to Williams. Williams won titles at Bangalore and the Tier I events at Miami and Charleston and lost in the quarters at the Australian Open and last week at Berlin, another Tier I event.
Patty Schnyder is hoping to reach her first Tier I semifinal since last year at this same event, where she upset Serena Williams in three sets in the quarters and lost to eventual champion Jankovic in the semis.
At 18, Cornet is the only teenager left in the draw, while 29-year-old Schnyder is the oldest. (WTA Tour)
