By Chris Oddo

Photo Credit: Stephen Dunn/ Getty

(July 18, 2012)—Top-seeded Marion Bartoli outlasted Vania King 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in a battle of attrition at the Mercury Insurance Open on Wednesday night.

After giving up a break lead in the second set by serving two consecutive double faults (her eighth and ninth of the match), the world No. 10 fell behind a break after serving two more double faults in the ninth game.

She would go on to lose the second set, and that was just the beginning of her troubles 

 

In total, Bartoli would serve 18 double faults and surrender eight breaks against King, but in the end the fortitude that has always characterized Bartoli's game helped her to the finish line.

 

Trailing 4-2  in the third set, Bartoli fought off two break points, then rallied to take the final three games of the match, including another tense service game that saw Bartoli in survival mode again, saving two more break points to take a 5-4 lead.

 

The Frenchwoman faced a whopping 20 break points on the evening, but she kept the pressure on King’s serve as well, and finally converted on her first match point of the evening to seal the victory at the 3:10 mark.

 

In other second-round action fourth-seeded Nadia Petrova won 25 of 29 first-serve points and saved both break points she faced en route to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over American qualifier Alexa Glatch.

 

Elsewhere, American Varvara Lepchenko upset Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa to reach her third WTA quarterfinal of 2012 with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over the eighth seed. Lepchenko, currently ranked at a career-high of 44 in the world, did not face a break point in the one hour, 22-minute affair.

 

Lepchenko will face Petrova in the quarterfinals.

 

Also reaching the quarterfinals was qualifier Yung-Jun Chan of Taiwan, who defeated Heather Watson 6-3, 7-6(2). 

 

Second-Seeded Goerges Upset in Bastad

 

Reigning champion Polana Hercog continued her winning ways at the Sony Swedish Open with a 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Julia Goerges in second-round play today.

 

Hercog reached a career high ranking of 35 after last year’s US Open, but since has dropped down to No. 85 after a string of injuries and five consecutive losses coming into Bastad.

 

Hercog, who defeated Sweden’s Johanna Larson in last year’s final, got her first win in three tries against Goerges. The 21-year-old Slovenian will continue her title defense against Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarterfinals. Pironkova, unseeded, defeated Lesia Tsurenko, 7-5, 6-3.

 

Also advancing to the quarterfinals were fifth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who defeated Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain 6-4, 6-0, and seventh-seeded Mona Barthel of Germany, who eased past Kateryna Bondareko 6-2, 7-5.