Kateryna in, Alona out

Three seeds were still alive before the quarterfinals started, but after, only one, Kateryna Bondarenko, survived.

Third seed Nicole Vaidisova started her losing streak (again), after being ousted by unseeded American Bethanie Mattek in only 52 minutes, 63 60. After top seed Marion Bartoli's second round loss and Dinara Safina - who was to be the No.2 seed - pulling out of the event before it even started due to a low back injury, Vaidisova was hoping to go all the way as the highest seed remaining as of the third round.

"I know she hasn't had a lot of wins recently, so I really just wanted to make her play every point, and on my end stay aggressive," Mattek said. "I was standing pretty close to the baseline and putting pressure on her, so even when I wasn't hitting it as hard as she was, she was forced into some mistakes. I came out with a game plan and I'm happy it worked today."

"I think Bethanie played a great match, but I didn't," said Vaidisova, who had lost six matches in a row prior to her first two wins this week in Birmingham. "It has been a good week, though. I think I just played a better player today than the ones I played earlier in the week, and I wasn't able to have the same result."


Alona Bondarenko was sent home by Croatian-born New Zealander Marina Erakovic, 64 75.
Erakovic was taking an easy 64 42 lead, but it seemed as the Ukrainian was fighting back, making it 5-4. But Erakovic still ended up clinching the victory.

It was a tough day today, but I think it was the best match I've played so far this week," Erakovic said. "It was up and down for us both, but I was able to win the crucial games. Tomorrow I'll be playing her sister and I know her well from the juniors, so it'll be another tough match."

Erakovic is now through to her third semifinal of the year, having gone this far at her home event of Auckland and at Memphis.

In the other two quarterfinals, No.12 seed Kateryna Bondarenko came back from 4-2 down to win a tight first set then cruised against Petra Cetkovska, 76(3) 62, to reach her first career Tour singles semifinal; Yanina Wickmayer sent the last British player standing home, beating wildcard Melanie South, 64 63.

"I had a lot of obstacles to overcome today: it's my first tournament on my own as my dad had to go home sick, and it was the first time on Centre Court here," Wickmayer said. "I had a crowd that wasn't cheering for me; I dealt with it well."