By Nick Georgandis

Photo Credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

(January 4, 2012) Their hometowns are about five hours apart and they're ranked 54 spots away from one each other, but the margin between Sabine Lisicki and fellow German Mona Barthel was almost too close for comfort for the ASB Classic's No. 1 seed on Wednesday.

Lisicki had to sweat out a 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-3 victory in just under 2-1/2 hours Wednesday to reach the tournament's quarterfinals, where she will take on fellow German Angelique Kerber.

The 69th-ranked Barthel lived on the edge throughout the match, saving 16 of 23 break points. Each player double faulted seven times, but Lisicki was exceptional on both her own and Barthel's second serves in the third set to finally put the match out of reach.

In a battle of 23-year-old Germans ranked in the top 35, Kerber dominated Julia Goerges 6-2, 6-3 in one hour by breaking her opponent three times and hitting 84% of her first serves for winners.

The 32nd-ranked Kerber tied her all-time series with the 21st-ranked Goerges at 1-1 with the victory.

She may not have the fame of fellow Russians Vera Zvonareva and Maria Sharapova, but 57th-ranked Elena Vesnina had one of the biggest wins of the early season on Wednesday, knocking off sixth-seeded Roberta Vinci 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.

Vesnina broke the 23rd-ranked Vinci four times and scored 32 winners on return points to advance to Auckland's third round.

Next up for Vesnina is the tournament's fourth seed, Flavia Pennetta, a 6-4, 6-2 winner Wednesday over Great Britain's Elena Baltacha.

Pennetta was particularly sharp on first serves - tallying six aces and hitting 21 of 26 first serves for winning points. She also saved Baltacha's only break point.

The Italian won one title per year from 2007-2010, but did not take any last year. Vesnina has never won an ATP tournament title.

An even bigger upset came a bit later when the Czech Republic's Lucie Hradecka stunned tournament No. 2 seed Shuai Peng 6-4, 6-3. The 26-year-old Czech ranked 52nd in the world made short work of the 17th-ranked China native thanks to eight aces and an 86% success rate on first serves.

Saving five of six break points also helped cement the upset.

Hradecka draws Jie Zheng, also an upset winner on Wednesday, in the tournament quarterfinals.
Zheng defeated eighth-seeded Monica Niculescu 6-0, 6-2 by playing a tremendous return game and breaking the Romanian six times in eight chances.