Oudin Reaches Quarters in Birmingham

By Chris Oddo

Photo Credit: Pascal Guyot/AFP/GettyImages

(June 14, 2012)—Melanie Oudin is getting the most out of her trip to Europe this spring. The 21-year-old, who hadn't won a main draw match all year until the French Open, can now boast three in a row on the grass at the AEGON Classic in Birmingham, England. Oudin dominated Elena Vesnina of Russia today, 6-0, 6-2, to reach her first WTA quarterfinal in over a year (Morocco, April, 2011).

The Georgia native will face fellow American Irina Falconi (a Georgia resident) in the quarterfinals. Falconi, 22, broke serve seven times en route to a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Urszula Radwanska of Poland.

Zheng Jie of China, who was forced to qualify for the main draw in spite of a world ranking of 32, defeated Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic to set up a quarterfinal tilt with Roberta Vinci of Italy. Zheng, a former Wimbledon semifinalist, missed the cutoff date of entry for the tournament, and thus had to play two qualifying matches to enter the main draw.

Fourth-seeded Vinci took out Heather Watson of Great Britain with a commanding third-set performance, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. The twentieth-ranked Italian won 16 of 18 points on serve, and broke serve on each of her two opportunities to race to victory.

Eighth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova and thirteenth-seeded Su-Wei Hsieh also advanced to the quarterfinals.

Wickmayer, Pervak Reach Quarters in Bad Gastein

Second-seeded Yanina Wickmayer and third-seeded Ksenia Pervak reached the quarterfinals of the Nurnberger Gastein Ladies in Austria today with straight set wins.

Wickmayer, a former world No. 12, avenged a loss in April against Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria by defeating the world No. 97, 7-6(4), 6-3.

Pervak slipped past Sarah Gronert of Germany 6-2, 6-3 in 75 minutes to set up a quarterfinal match with American qualifier Chichi Scholl.

Scholl pulled the upset of the day when she took out sixth-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 6-3, 6-4. The 19-year-old American will take on Ksenia Pervak in the quarterfinals.

Fourth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain also fell, losing Mandy Minella of Luxembourg in three sets, while seventh-seeded Alize Cornet and eighth-seeded Johanna Larsson were victorious.