By Lauren Lynch Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/ Corleve
(July 14, 2011) Only three, four and five are left amongst the seeds with Irina-Camelia Begu joining the top eight players left on the clay court of Palermo, Italy.
The remaining Italian Sara Errani, after Roberta Vinci fell to Begu in two sets, and top seed defeated World No. 66 Pauline Parmentier 7-5, 6-1.
The 2008 champion and 2009 finalist enters the quarterfinals with a strong 85 first-serve percentage and managed to convert six of eleven breaks of service.
20-year-old Begu of Romania is ranked as 60 in the world as a career high after making it to the finals in Marbella. She defeated the second seed, who won titles in Barcelona and 's-Hertogenbosch, 6-4, 6-3 in an hour, 48 minutes.
She was able to attack Vinci's game while saving seven break points from the favorite.
Vinci returned to the court for doubles with Errani to get her revenge against Begu and partner Jurak winning 6-4, 6-3.
Fourth seed Czech-player Klara Zakopalova took the win against Ani Mijacaki of Croatia 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. However the World No. 246 played considerably well in the two hour, nine minute match saving many break points and threatening her opponent's serve 15 times with six conversions.
Fifth seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain beat countrywoman and lucky-loser Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino 6-1, 7-5.
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Meanwhile at the Nurnberger Gastein Ladies tournament, Austria's own Yvonne Meusburger defeated retiring fellow Austrian Sybille Bammer, 6-2, 6-1, in her last match at age 31.
"The first time I thought about retiring was after I injured my shoulder in 2009. I had some big problems - I kept playing and it got better, but I couldn't practice as much as I could before. And then this year after Miami I got sick and couldn't practice for four weeks, and when I started again I wasn't playing so well. So it was around that time I really started thinking about retiring from tennis," said Bammer at the Associated Press. "But I got into Bad Gastein at the last minute and thought, 'Okay, I like tennis, so I'll play one more!'"
Meusburger commented on her opponent, "She was so successful and I'm very proud we had a No.1 like Sybille. I wish her all the best and I hope she has a great life after tennis."
With no seeds left except for No.8 Ksenia Pervak, the top non-seeded player María José Martínez Sánchez defeated Sandra Zahlavova 6-4, 6-2.
Bulgarian qualifier Dia Evtimova came back from being down and broke twice in the second and four times in the third to outshine Austrian wildcard Nikola Hofmanova 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Wildcard Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria won 79 percent of her points on her service game against Croatia's Petra Martic 6-1, 6-4. Martic particularly struggled with the Austrian's second serve. Only being able to win one of eleven points on the second serve and nine of 37 first serves.