Nurnberg, Germany – Former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic saw double duty Wednesday and reached the quarterfinals at the inaugural clay- court Nurnberger Versicherungscup tennis event.
The top-seeded Jankovic opened her day by finishing off Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus 6-4, 6-2 in a first-round match that was suspended on Tuesday because of rain and darkness and capped her Wednesday with a 6-2, 6-0 second-round spanking of Swede Johanna Larsson at Nurnberg Tennis Club.
Seventh-seeded Romanian Simona Halep and Slovenian Polona Hercog also won a pair of matches on Day 3. Halep humbled American qualifier Grace Min 6-0, 7-5 in round one and then whipped Spaniard Estrella Cabeza Candela 6-2, 6-1 in the second round, while Hercog ousted second-seeded Czech Klara Zakopalova 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in a first-round affair and then handled American Julia Cohen 6-3, 6-3 to land in the quarters.
In other second-round action, Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva bounced third- seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 2-6, 6-3, 6-3; German crowd favorite Andrea Petkovic toppled fourth-seeded compatriot Julia Goerges 6-1, 7-5; fifth-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova leveled Spaniard Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor 6-4, 6-2; sixth- seeded Spaniard Lourdes Dominguez Lino bested Luxembourg's Mandy Minella 6-1, 6-4; and eighth-seeded German Annika Beck erased Italian Karin Knapp 6-4, 6-2.
One other opening-round match on Wednesday saw the aforementioned Cabeza Candela dismiss Czech qualifier Tereza Martincova 6-2, 6-3.
Thursday's quarterfinals will pit the French Open quarterfinalist Jankovic against Dominguez Lino; Safarova versus Hercog; Halep against Voskoboeva; and Beck versus the wild card Petkovic in an all-German affair.
The winner of this $235,000 tournament will claim $42,600.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.