Vinci, Jankovic into Birmingham quarters
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fourth seed Roberta Vinci and former champion Jelena Jankovic secured berths in Friday's quarterfinals at the Wimbledon tune-up event in Birmingham.
The Italian Vinci held off Brit Heather Watson 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, while a fifth- seeded Jankovic advanced via walkover when Aussie Casey Dellacqua pulled out of their scheduled third-round match, citing an illness, at Edgbaston Priory Club.
The Serbian former world No. 1 Jankovic titled here in 2007 and was the runner-up in 2005.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In other action involving seeds, No. 8 Russian Ekaterina Makarova overcame ninth-seeded Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 and No. 13 Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan whipped Hungarian Melinda Czink 6-1, 6-2.
In other third-round play, American qualifier Melanie Oudin drubbed Russian Elena Vesnina 6-0, 6-2, American Irina Falconi topped Pole Urszula Radwanska 7-5, 6-3, and Chinese qualifier Zheng Jie doused Czech Andrea Hlavackova 6-4, 6-1.
Japan's Misaki Doi was leading Frenchwoman Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-4, 2-2 when played was called because of rain on Thursday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Three quarterfinals matches have been set, as Vinci will face Zheng, Makarova will battle Hsieh and Oudin will tackle her fellow American Falconi on Friday.
The winner of the $220,000 Aegon Classic will collect $37,000.