ESPN Tennis

MASON, Ohio -- Teenager Shahar Peer of Israel came back from a set down to upset sixth-seeded Ai Sugiyama 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-4 in a rain-delayed match Wednesday in the Cincinnati Women's Open.

Fourth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova also advanced, beating American Chanda Rubin 6-2, 7-5, and top-seeded Patty Schnyder overcame a first-set loss to eliminate Aiko Nakamura 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Peer, 18, reached the quarterfinals of a WTA tournament for the second time this year by winning the longest match of the Tier III $170,000 tournament -- 2 hours, 19 minutes -- not including a rain delay of 1:23. She also reached the quarterfinals in Istanbul in May.

"She played very good, but I was playing good tennis, too," Peer said. "I didn't see a big difference between us.

"I'm happy I won it, because she's a good player."

Sugiyama didn't think she played badly in defeat.

"I started good," Sugiyama said. "My spirit was going and she was pumped up at the end of the third set. I made unforced errors and many mistakes."

Sugiyama of Japan, ranked 32nd after climbing to No. 8 in February 2004, has lost four of her last five matches, including her first loss in the first round at Wimbledon since 1998.

She was broken in the ninth game of the third set Wednesday when a line judge called a forehand by Peer out only to have the call reversed by chair umpire Dianna Kondratowitch-Pierce. Peer then held serve to win the match.

"It was a tough call," Sugiyama said. "If it's deuce, it's a different story."

South Korea's Yoon Jeong Cho overcame back problems to become the tournament's first quarterfinalist with a 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-2 win over Russian Tatiana Panova in a match played in 90-degree temperatures and lasting almost two hours. The heat and humidity forced the players to take a 10-minute break between the second and third sets.

Cho, whose back problems forced her to withdraw from one tournament last year and another in January, had to leave the court in the second set for a massage, she said. She dominated Panova after returning and reached the quarterfinals of a WTA tournament for the first time since February.

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press