Spanish player Rebeka Masarova upset fifth-seeded Bianca Andreescu 6-3, 6-2 but Liudmila Samsonova survived a scare to reach the quarter finals of the Bad Homburg Open.
Second-seeded Samsonova needed 2 hours and 37 minutes to beat Czech player Linda Noskova 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 at the grass-court tournament.
Top seed Iga Swiatek also advanced to the quarter finals, defeating Jil Teichmann 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday.
Last year’s finalist Andreescu had put up an energetic performance in the earlier round. The Canadian 2019 US Open winner converted her fourth match point to beat British wild card Sonay Kartal 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 after battling for nearly two-and-a-half hours. But on Tuesday, Masarova proved to be too strong for her.
Czech Katerina Siniakova also made it to the last-eight stage, defeating Evgeniya Rodina of Russia 6-2, 6-4.
Earlier, Lena Papadakis, who entered the main draw as a lucky loser, lost 6-0, 6-1 to Canada’s Leylah Fernandez, a 2021 US Open finalist.
In another match, American Emma Navarro beat Alizé Cornet of France 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) to reach the quarter finals. The 22-year-old Navarro will next play Masarova, who converted five of her eight breakpoint opportunities against Andreescu, without facing much difficulty.
Eighth-seeded Varvara Gracheva of France beat Italy’s Sara Errani 6-2, 7-5.
Tennis fans also witnessed plenty of emotion when former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki lost 6-3, 1-6, 5-7 to ninth-seeded Anna Blinkova despite leading 4-1 in the deciding set.
“I just had a really bad day today and never really got into it. It’s such a shame because I like this tournament so much,” said the wild card holder. Lisicki managed 10 aces, but Blinkova kept her nerve after close to two hours and converted her first match point. Written with inputs from AP/PTI
