Gisela Dulko

Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva and former world No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo were a pair of second-round winners Thursday at the $225,000 Luxembourg Championships.

The top-seeded Dementieva, of Russia, drilled Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-2, 6-2, while the fifth-seeded Mauresmo, of France, drubbed German Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-3, 6-1 on the indoor hardcourts at CK Sport Kockelscheuer.

Elena Dementieva continued her strong season on Thursday with a 6-2 6-2 second-round triumph over Argentina's Gisela Dulko at the FORTIS Championships.
 
The top-seeded Russian has now advanced to the quarter-finals in 15 of her last 16 tournaments.
 
The 27-year-old, currently number five in the rankings, is gunning for her third title and fifth championship match appearance.
 
Dementieva, who won gold at the Beijing Olympics, also appears primed to finish the year among the top five for the first time in her career.

Junior Wimbledon champion Laura Robson suffered her second WTA Tour defeat in as many days at the Fortis Championships Luxembourg on Wednesday.
 
The 14-year-old Londoner became the youngest British player to compete on the main tour when she fell to a three-set loss by Iveta Benesova in the first round of the singles on Tuesday.
 
She then teamed up with Argentina's Gisela Dulko in the doubles but the pair were beaten 6-2 6-3 by Vera Dushevina and Mariya Koryttseva.
 

Ranked No.550 in the world, Wimbledon junior champion Laura Robson made her Sony Ericsson WTA Tour debut on Tuesday at the FORTIS Championships Luxembourg. And the 14-year-old Briton gave a good account of herself, too, taking the first set from 25-year-old world No.42 Iveta Benesova before falling 16, 62 63.
 

Caroline Wozniacki had a breakthrough summer, winning her first two titles, cracking the world's Top 20 and reaching the second week of the US Open, where she pushed Jelena Jankovic to three before falling. She cooled off somewhat in the first few weeks of the fall season, losing first round in her first two events, but this week at the AIG Japan Open she rekindled her summer magic in a big way, storming to her third Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title of the year (and of her career).
 

It was a mixed day for seeded players on Day 1 of the China Open on Monday. Daniela Hantuchova cruised while Caroline Wozniacki crumbled, as the first round of the $600,000, Tier II Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event kicked off.
 
Hantuchova, the No.7 seed in Beijing, was staying even with Gisela Dulko early on in their match but once it got to 3-all she broke away, winning nine of the last 10 games to beat the South American No.1, 63 61. She is now 3-1 lifetime against her, which includes winning their last three encounters.
 

Unseeded Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek pulled off another upset on Thursday with a 6-2 2-6 6-3 triumph over seventh seed Pauline Parmentier in the second round of the Guangzhou Open.
 
Paszek came into this Tier III hardcourt event in fine form, having picked off top-seeded Daniela Hantuchova, number three Flavia Pennetta and seventh seed Sara Errani en route to the final in Bali last weekend.
 

Three seeds, including two Chinese stars, progressed to their designated quarterfinal slots at the TOE Life Ceramics Guangzhou International Women's Open on Thursday, to be joined by unseeded Frenchwoman Camille Pin. But in two upsets, one of them perhaps not-so-surprising, both No.5 seed Gisela Dulko and No.7 seed Pauline Parmentier fell to 17-year-old opponents.
 

As the last of the first round matches were played Wednesday, top seed Vera Zvonareva eased into the second round of the TOE Life Ceramics Guangzhou International Women's Open, as did No.4 seed Peng Shuai and Austrian teen Tamira Paszek. Simultaneous second round action claimed two of the top eight seeds at the Tier III event, however.
 

Olympic bronze medalist Vera Zvonareva and Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng Jie headline the fifth staging of the TOE Life Ceramics Guangzhou International Women's Open this week. As well as Yan Zi, who won her sole singles title here in 2005 and more recently combined with Zheng to capture doubles bronze at the Beijing Games, the Tier III field includes China's third-ranked singles player, Peng Shuai, doubles specialist Sun Tiantian, as well as a raft of up-and-coming talent from the emerging tennis nation.