Su-Wei only seed in fray at Habtoor tennis

dubai—Fifth seed Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei remained the lone ranked player in the field when she made it to the quarterfinals with 6-1, 6-4 win over Dutch qualifier Quirine Lemoine on Wednesday in the 19th edition of the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge.

Galina Voskoboeva, who is a wild card entry in the tournament being played at the Habtoor Grand Resort, survived a second set scare before getting past Austria’s Barbara Haas 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Hsieh, 30, has two Grand Slam doubles title to her credit. She won the Wimbledon doubles and followed this up with the 2014 French Open doubles title along with her regular partner Peng Shuai of China.

Wild card Galina Voskoboeva also advanced to the quarters with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Haas, who had won in three sets against former world number seven, Patty Schynder late on Tuesday.

Another Dutch qualifier Lesley Kerkhove had an easy 6-2, 6-2 victory over Slovakian Tadeja Majeric as she made it to the last eight stage. German Mona Barthel came from behind to oust Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in another pre-quarterfinal of the annual event.

Sabina Sharipova of Uzbekistan had it east when she defeated compatriot Nigina Abduraimova 6-4, 6-3.

In the other match of the night, Serbian Aleksandra Krunic brushed aside second set jitters to win 6-4, 7-6 to get past Russian Ksenia Pervak

In the most exciting contest of the second day of the tournament, Natalia Vikhlyantseva literally staged a Houdini’s act to beat Dalma Galfi 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 for a place in the last eight.