Top 4 Seeds Move Into Prague Quarterfinals

The Top 4 seeds swept into the quarterfinals of the $145,000 ECM Prague Open on Thursday without the loss of a set, setting up a fantastic final eight line-up for Quarterfinal Friday at the Tier IV event.
 
No.1-seeded Vera Zvonareva didn't even have to strike a ball to move through, receiving a walkover from Magdalena Rybarikova after the Slovak wildcard was forced to drop out of the tournament due to a low back strain. Zvonareva has now made the quarterfinals or better in eight of nine events this year, with finals at Hobart and Tier I events at Doha and Charleston highlighting those runs. She is still looking for her first title of the year, however.
 
Following Zvonareva with second round victories of their own were seeds No.2, No.3 and No.4, namely Shahar Peer, Victoria Azarenka and Katarina Srebotnik. Peer struggled early on but eventually eased past Tsvetana Pironkova, 75 62; Azarenka blew past Tatiana Poutchek, 62 62; and Srebotnik notched her second rout of the week over qualifier Melinda Czink, 60 62. The only other seed in action was No.7 seed Klara Zakopalova, who beat Vera Dushevina, 64 16 63.
 
In the only other second round match of the day Iveta Benesova continue
her clay court resurgence, following up her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles final in two years at Estoril with a 62 46 63 win over Akgul Amanmuradova to reach the quarterfinals here.
 
The first two second round matches were played Wednesday, with Roberta Vinci and wildcard Karolina Pliskova earning quarterfinal berths.
 
The quarterfinal match-ups will be Zvonareva against Vinci, Srebotnik versus Benesova, Azarenka against Pliskova and Peer against Zakopalova.
 
The last three doubles quarterfinals were also played with winners including No.4 seeds Jill Craybas and Michaella Krajicek, who bounced Eva Hrdinova and Klaudia Jans in a match tie-break, 26 64 119. They are the only seeded combo remaining after the other three seeded teams all fell in the first round.