Petrova cruises into Quebec last eight

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:07

The top-seeded Russian, whose only title of the year came at Cincinnati in August, remained on course for her ninth career title after dropping just eight games in her first two matches.

Petrova, who will be looking to reach her second final in the last month after reaching the championship match at Stuttgart, will next face Hungary’s Melinda Czink, who easily dispatched American Julie Ditty 6-1 6-1.

Czink, who will be facing Petrova for the first time, upset ninth seed Sabine Lisicki in the first round.

In the lower half of the draw, sixth seed Bethanie Mattek survived a difficult encounter with local player Valerie Tetreault to pull out a 7-6 (7/4) 3-6 7-6 (7/1) victory.

Tetreault got strong support from the Quebec City crowd and twice served for the match before ultimately losing.

Mattek’s next opponent will be American compatriot Melanie Oudin, a 6-1 7-6 (7/3) winner over Olga Puchkova.

It was an impressive rally for the 17-year-old Oudin, who was trailing 5-2 in the second set before coming back to dispatch Puchkova, the 2006 runner-up.

“When she was down she started going for everything, and she was making them,” Oudin said. “But when she was up in the second set I just tried to keep it tight with her, and she started making some errors again.”

In the lone first-round match, Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino topped American veteran Jill Craybas 7-6 (7/4) 6-1. Marino saved five set points to set up a match with Galina Voskoboeva in the second round.

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