Date Krumm into last eight

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:58

The 39-year-old Japanese player, who retired in 1996 before making a surprise comeback last year, lost the first set but staged an impressive comeback to triumph 3-6 6-3 6-2.

Date Krumm will next face Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer, who continued to make the most of her wild card with a convincing 6-2 6-2 victory over Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru.

The 20-year-old US Open semi-finalist was a late entrant to the New Zealand event after the International Tennis Federation last month suspended her one-year ban for a doping violation.

Top seed Flavia Pennetta continued her smooth progress through the draw with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro.

The Italian next meets Dominika Cibulkova, who upset seventh seed Aravane Rezai 6-3 6-4.

At the bottom of the draw, Kaia Kanepi could not build on her first-round victory over second seed Li Na as she was beaten 6-2 6-3 by Maria Kirilenko while Israel’s Shahar Peer hammered Magdalena Rybarikova 6-1 6-0.

Fourth seed Francesca Schiavone will meet France’s Alize Cornet in the other last-eight clash after both had easy wins today.

Italian Schiavone saw off India’s Sania Mirza 6-0 6-3 and Cornet was even more impressive in a 6-1 6-1 victory over sixth seed Elena Vesnina.

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