MONTREAL, 7 August 2004 — Top seed Amelie Mauresmo of France and third seed Anastasia Myskina advanced to the quarterfinals of a $1.3 million WTA hardcourt tournament here Thursday but Russian teen Maria Sharapova was eliminated.
Mauresmo ousted Russia’s Elena Bovina 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to book a quarterfinal date against Croatia’s Karolina Sprem, who defeated Sugiyama 6-3, 6-4, in another third-round match. French Open champion Myskina breezed past American Chanda Rubin 6-4, 6-0 to reach the quarters. She said her Roland Garros win has given her more confidence on the tour.
On Wednesday, Myskina beat Spaniard Aranxta Parra Santonja, 6-0, 6-4. Myskina next faces No. 13 Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria.
Russian beauty Maria Sharapova, the sixth seed, was upset by compatriot Vera Zvonareva in three sets 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Fifth seed Jennifer Capriati, from the United States, defeated France’s Mary Pierce 6-2, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals.
Also advancing were France’s Tatiana Golovin, who beat Argentina’s Gisela Dulko 6-7 (0-7), 6-3, 6-4, and Maleeva, who ousted Argentina’s Paola Suarez 6-4, 6-3.
Mauresmo became the favorite following the withdrawal of American Serena Williams. She needed one hour and 56 minutes to oust Bovina after dropping the second set. It was the second straight round she lost the middle set.
“I was upset because I felt I missed a lot of chances to break her serve,” Mauresmo said.
Third seeded Mauresmo overcame a poor second set to beat Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 on Tuesday.
Revitalized Agassi Eases
Into Last Eight
In Cincinnati, Andre Agassi reached his first quarterfinal in five months with a revitalized performance that enabled him to overcome Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-3 in the Masters Series on Thursday.
A former winner of all four grand slam titles built on his improved form of the previous round and struck the ball with more confidence and assertiveness than earlier in the year when he was bothered by a hip problem.
The 34-year-old 11th seed also moved much better than recently, enabling him to dictate the pattern against Chela and to repel for at least another day the continual talk of retirement.
The highlight of the match was the rally that took Agassi to break point on Chela’s serve when leading 4-3 in the second set.
He brought his 17th-seeded Argentine opponent forward with a drop shot before rolling a backhand topspin lob to within centimeters of the baseline to make the winner.
The charismatic American then converted the break chance at the first attempt with a passing shot and closed out the match without fuss. “Tonight I felt real good. It’s the first match in a long time that I felt that comfortable with my game,” Agassi said.
Agassi now lines up in a battle of former world number ones against Carlos Moya, who had to fight hard to get past lucky loser Wayne Arthurs.
Moya won 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, but needed to rally from a break down in the deciding set.
The Spaniard also uncharacteristically got a code violation for striking a ball over the grandstand in a fit of temper. Two other former world No. 1s meet in the top half of the draw as Marat Safin takes on Lleyton Hewitt.
Safin overcame Ivo Karlovic and a bout of histrionics when he was incensed by a line decision to win 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 against his giant Croatian opponent.
Hewitt had an easier time of it in thrashing Tim Henman 6-1, 6-4 to register his eighth victory over the Briton in as many attempts.
Henman was possibly suffering from fatigue following a second round match that finished in the early hours of Thursday morning, and he could never match the energy, intensity and mobility of the Australian.
Defending champion Andy Roddick, who raced into the last eight with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand.
Also advancing to the last eight were Spain’s Tommy Robredo, Germany’s Tommy Haas and France’s Fabrice Santoro.
Robredo needed a pair of tiebreaks to edge big-serving Briton Greg Rusedski while Santoro eased to a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Jonas Bjorkman. Haas was forced to dig deep to record a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win over Robin Soderling of Sweden in a night match.
