Nusa Dua (Indonesia), Sep 12: Thailand's fifth seeded Tamarine Tanasugarn moved into the quarter-finals of the WTA tournament here yesterday with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Chinese qualifier Jie Zheng. She now meets Russian second seed Elena Dementieva for a place in the semi-finals. Local favourite Angelique Widjaja also went through beating Tathiana Garbin of Italy 7-5, 6-3 while Switzerland's Emmanuelle Gagliardi beat Croatian qualifier Ivana Abramovic 6-1, 7-5.
However, third seed Conchita Martinez was the biggest casualty of the day losing 6-1, 6-3 to in-form Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela. Martinez barely survived her first round match because of a stomach virus, and looked sluggish against Vento-Kabchi, whose confidence was boosted recently by her first victory over a top 10 player when she beat Chanda Rubin at the US Open. She also qualified at Stanford last month and went to reach the semi-finals. Vento-Kabchi trains in Florida with Pat Etcheberry, who also works with French and US Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne.


Bureau Report