Indian rising star loses; Wozniacki, two Spaniards make it through to last eight

It's down to the final eight in Stockholm, after two seeded and three unseeded players won their second round matches and advanced to the quarterfinals.

Czech Iveta Benesova beat rising star Sania Mirza, 46 63 63, seeded sixth, and it was the third consecutive win for Benesova against the Indian. The 25-year-old Czech will next face Vera Dushevina, and it will be a tough match, as Dushevina is up 3-0 in head-to-head results.

Caroline Wozniacki beat Finnish wildcard Emma Laine, 60 61, and next up for the Dane will be Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues, who beat qualifier Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in the same score, 60 61.

Camille Pin of France beat Swedish Johanna Larsson, who had high hopes of winning the tournament, 63 62. Next, she will play No. 1 seed and defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska for a semifinal berth.

Veteran Virginia Ruano Pascual also made it through to the quarters after beating qualifier Maria Elena Camerin, 63 62. The Spaniard will next face No. 3 seed Katarina Srebotnik, who is looking to get back on track after losing early in her home country last eek in Portoroz.

Ivanovic, Jankovic get through to the quarters; Sharapova withdraws from Roger Cup after win

Ana Ivanovic didn't make such a great opening to her hardcourt season as she won her first match of the tournament to Czech Petra Kvitova in a tight three-setter. It wasn't a good day for most of the seeds, including Maria Kirilenko and Flavia Pennetta, as they both failed to pass their tests on Wednesday.

Ivanovic, seeded and ranked 1st, had a tough time on court as she played her debut match against the Czech, losing the second set shamefully, but eventually pulling off the win after an exhausting match which took 1 hour and 59 minutes to finish, 63 46 63.

"It wasn't the best match I've played," Ivanovic said. "She played a match before this week and for me it was the first match since Wimbledon. So in the beginning I obviously struggled to find my rhythm a little bit. But I'm happy I won. You have to win even if you don't play your best. That was the case for me today."

Other seeds advancing in the day session were No.6 seed Anna Chakvetadze, a 62 75 winner over Jill Craybas; No.7 seed Dinara Safina, who improved to 23-3 since the European clay court season with a 62 64 win over Anastasia Rodionova; No.9 seed Patty Schnyder, a 61 75 winner over Monica Niculescu; No.11 seed Victoria Azarenka, a 62 62 winner over Sybille Bammer; and No.12 seed Nadia Petrova, who beat Tamarine Tanasugarn, 63 62. No.10 seed Marion Bartoli moved into the third round when her opponent, Alisa Kleybanova, withdrew prior to their match due to a low back injury.

Two seeds, Maria Kirilenko and Flavia Pennetta, weren't as lucky as Ivanovic. Kirilenko, seeded 13th, lost in a tight three-setter to Canadian Stephanie Dubois, 62 26 76(4), knowing that the crowd will go against her; while No. 15 seed Flavia Pennetta was ousted by 15-year-old rising star Michelle Larcher de Brito, 63 06 63.

"At the end I was still believing I could do it; I managed well on the important points," said Dubois, who showed some strong nerves to come back as Kirilenko served for the match at 5-4 in the third set. "I'm really happy right now I pulled it through. I didn't want to lose this match. Obviously, Maria played a good match. She's a top player. She has won two titles this year. Every point was tough."

Winners between unseeded matches were Ai Sugiyama, who won over Shahar Peer 62 62, and Tamira Paszek was victorious over Melinda Czink, 64 75.

One of the last matches was between Maria Sharapova and Marta Domachowska, which lasted five miuntes short of three hours. Sharapova was obviously not in her best form, losing the second set, but she came back eventually and won the match in a three-setter, 75 57 62. Maria was struggling in the match with her shoulder, serving 15 double faults, and at the end of the match, she withdrawn from the tournament because of her shoulder.

"Coming into this tournament I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to compete," Sharapova said. "In the last few weeks I've been trying to find a solution to the aggravation I did to the shoulder back at Indian Wells in one of my matches. I haven't found the solution yet. I just spoke to a couple of doctors and they advised me to try to find the cause of the problem, what's causing my bursitis, because they think there's something else behind it rather than just that."

No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic was the last to take the court, against home player Aleksandra Wozniak. The match was easily finished in two sets, with Jankovic breaking the Canandian's dreams of winning in her home country, 60 64.

"The first match is always tough; playing against a Canadian, knowing that the crowd will be against me, knowing all the circumstances, it's not so easy," Jankovic said. "But I was able to stay focused and was able to get through the match. I'm happy with that and looking forward to my next match."

"Obviously she played a great match today," Wozniak said. "She didn't make any mistakes. She played so cleanly in the first set and it went by so fast. In the second set I did better, stepping into the short balls and being more aggressive; but I think I made some errors and didn't take my opportunities. I'll just have to go forward from here and look to the future."

No. 2 seed Szavay ousted; top seed, Srebotnik advance

Only one seed was ousted on Wednesday as Day 3 came to a close in Stockholm, Sweden. No. 2 seed Agnes Szavay was that one seed, as she was ousted by Vera Dushevina in the second round in straight sets, while the other three seeds advanced to the quarterfinals on Wednesday at the Nordea Nordic Light Open.

Dushevina, last year's runner up, performed perfectly, beating No.2 seed Agnes Szavay, 64 76(6), and in the quarters she will meet either Sania Mirza or Iveta Benesova for a semifinal berth.

"I like this city and this tournament," said Dushevina. "It was a tough game, but I played well."

While the No. 2 seed lost, top seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who won to Dushevina in last year's final, had the opposite result, beating Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva, 61 61. Radwanska, so far, has had a great season, winning in Pattaya City and in Istanbul.

Katarina Srebotnik, seeded third, also won her second round match, to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 63 64. The 17-year-old Russian was too weak to beat the Slovenian, who had very good results in May, being in the semis of Prague and the final of Strasbourg.

"She started to play very well in that part of the match, and at the same time I missed a couple of shots," said Srebotnik. "Anastasia is a very good player, but it's a long way to go from the junior tour to the seniors." No.29-ranked Srebotnik will face either qualifier Maria Elena Camerin or Virginia Ruano Pascual in the quarterfinals.

No. 6 seed Sania Mirza won her first round match on Wednesday, and is through to the second round, after beating Emilie Loit of France 63 62 in the only first round match left to play.

2 of 6 seeds ousted in opening matches; Canadian wins in front of home crowd

As the first round of the rogers Cup came to a close, two seeds were ousted in their opening matches, but the other four seeds who played on Tueday reserved a spot in the next round

Nicole Vaidisova was one of the seeds who was ousted, falling to Ai Sugiyama in a three-setter, 63 36 62. She was the only seed to lose before the first round was finished. This is Vaidisova'a second early loss on hardcourts, the first being ast week in Los Angeles, when she fell to Bethanie Mattek, who made it to the semis eventually.

"Nicole didn't have a perfect day," Sugiyama said. "She gave me a lot of unforced errors, which gave me a lot of confidence, that if I could just play point by point, game by game, I had a chance to get through today. And in the end it went my way. It was an up-and-down match, but luckily I got through the third set."

Sugiyama, so far, has had a great season, reaching the semis for the first time since 2006 in Stanford two weeks ago, and reaching the third round in Los Angeles last week, where, in both tournaments she had some Top 20 wins, in Stanford against Hantuchova, and in Los Angeles against Patty Schnyder.

"I'm playing a lot of matches and I'm playing well," Sugiyama continued. "It makes me a little bit tired and with the three-hour time difference from Los Angeles it was tough to adjust, but I'm just focusing one point at a time."

The other four seeds playing the first round made it through. No.11 seed Victoria Azarenka beat qualifier Jamea Jackson, 61 61; No.12 seed Nadia Petrova beat wildcard Marie-Ève Pelletier, 60 61; No.13 seed Maria Kirilenko defeated Anne Keothavong, 61 75; and No.15 seed Flavia Pennetta, a runner-up at Los Angeles last week, rallied from a set and a break down to beat Olga Savchuk, 16 75 63.

Other first round winners were Sybille Bammer, Alisa Kleybanova, Marta Domachowska, Jill Craybas, qualifier Melinda Czink and Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, who edged Chan Yung-Jan in the feature night match in front of a packed crowd, 62 16 75.

"It was so great. It was so special. I haven't played in front of such a big crowd in so long," Wozniak said. "They gave me so much energy in the match. Definitely the win goes to them. My opponent did great in the second set. In the third set I had a 4-2 lead and it got really tight and close in the points, but I kept fighting."

Wozniak will next face the No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic, who lost her chance last week to reach the No. 1 spot in rankings. Being a Canadian,a nd playing the no. 2 in the world, Wozniak will probably have another full stadium to play for on Wednesday.

"It's a great opportunity for me to play the No.2 player in the world; it'll be my second time," Wozniak added. "This time I feel I have more experience. I hope tomorrow it's going to be a better match, that I'll be more aggressive and try to focus, try to stay in the moment the whole match."

Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva and Elena Dementieva all recieved second round byes, and were all involved n the first three matches of the second round. Excluding Kuznetsova, they all had the exact same result; loss. No. 4 seed Kuznetsoa was first to take the court against Alla Kudryavtseva, and she won in straight sets without having to finish the match, as Kudryavtseva retire due to a right shoulder injury, 60 10 ret'd. Zvonareva was a different story, as she suffered a shock defeat to Virginie Razzano in a tight three-setter, 63 16 76(2), despite leading 4-1 in the third set. The same happened with Dementieva, as she was also stunned in her debut match against Dominkia Cibulkova, 64 62. This was Cibulkova's third Top 10 win, having previously won to Venus Williams and Anna Chakvetadze earlier this year.