Oeiras, Portugal – Last year's final combatants -- reigning champion Kaia Kanepi and Carla Suarez Navarro -- were among Wednesday's second-round winners at the $235,000 Portugal Open tennis event.
Kanepi upset fifth-seeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 6-2, while a fourth- seeded Suarez Navarro handled Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-4, 6-3 at this clay- court French Open tune-up. Wickmayer captured this event in Estoril back in 2009.
Kanepi, who recently returned to action after being sidelined since last year due to a heel injury, beat Suarez Navarro in last year's final in Estoril.
The Estonian Kanepi's quarterfinal opponent on Thursday will be Japan's Ayumi Morita, while the Spanish Suarez Navarro will meet Portuguese lucky loser Monica Puig.
In other second-round action involving seeds, No. 3 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia topped Spanish qualifier Estrella Cabeza Candela 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) and No. 7 Elena Vesnina, also from Russia, straight-setted Romanian Monica Niculescu 6-4, 6-4.
Also on Day 3, Puig upended last week's Marrakech and former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-2; former top-five Russian star and two- time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Kazakhstani qualifier Galina Voskoboeva 6-4, 6-4; Swiss Romina Oprandi charged past Chinese Peng Shuai 6-1, 6-3; and the aforementioned Morita mauled Pole Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-3.
The other quarterfinals will pit Pavlyuchenkova against her compatriot Vesnina and the former French Open titlist and wild card Kuznetsova versus Oprandi.
This week's Portugal Open champion will pocket $42,000.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.