Schiavone tops Pascual, reaches Gastein Ladies quarterfinals
BAD GASTEIN, Austria -- Top-seeded Francesca Schiavone beat Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Gastein Ladies.
Schiavone, who broke serve four times in the first set, will play sixth-seeded Agnes Szavay, who beat Dominika Cibulkova 7-5, 6-0.
Szavay, who won in Palermo last week, won eight straight games after losing serve ahead 5-4 in the first set.
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain saved three match points before beating Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (6).
Groenefeld served for the match at 5-4 in the third set and led 6-3 in the tiebreaker before Martinez Sanchez won five straight points.
Martinez Sanchez will play seventh-seeded Karin Knapp, who defeated Laura Pous Tio 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Eighth-seeded Lourdes Dominguez Lino defeated Maria Emilia Salerni 0-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3. She'll face Yvonne Meusburger, who beat Eva Birnerova 6-4, 6-1.
Also, Kaia Kanepi of Estonia beat Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4. She now plays the 134th-ranked Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic, who beat Edina Gallovits of Romania 6-2, 6-4.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
