Dementieva reaches Auckland quarters, five seeds lose
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Elena Dementieva and Caroline Wozniaki reached the quarterfinals of the ASB Classic women's tennis tournament Wednesday as five of their fellow seeded players were upset in straight sets.
Top-seeded Dementieva, the world No.4, beat New Zealander Marina Erakovic 6-2, 6-3, while second-seeded Wozniaki of Denmark beat American veteran Jill Craybas 6-4, 7-5.
Olympic champion Dementieva showed improved form after struggling in her first round match to beat Erakovic, who struggled with neck and abdominal injuries. The Russian said the crowd support for Erakovic made the match harder than it seemed.
"It was a very emotional match," she said. "I think we had a good fight in the first set and I played a little better than yesterday and this is what I need, just to improve and keep playing better tennis in every round."
The third, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth seeds fell to unseeded opponents on Wednesday, after all the tournament's eight seeds had safely reached the second round.
Third-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain lost 6-3, 6-3 to Edina Gallovits of Romania and No. 4 Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada lost 7-5, 6-2 to Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita.
Sixth-seeded Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic was beaten 6-4, 6-3 by Russia's Elena Vesnina, No. 7 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia lost 6-2, 6-3 to Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai and No. 8 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain lost 6-2, 6-4 to Britain's Anne Keothavong.
The only other seeded player to progress was Israeli No. 5 Shahar Peer, who shrugged off threatened protests over Israel's military action in Gaza to beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in Wednesday's only singles match to go to three sets.
Peer was surrounded by extra security as she played her second round match after an Auckland-based protest group called on her to withdraw from the tournament as part of an international boycott of Israel.
Peer rejected the call, telling reporters later Wednesday that she could not be held responsible for the politics of the Middle East.
