Third-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy advanced to the quarterfinals of the Bali Open yesterday, beating Anastasia Rodionova 6-3, 7-5.
Pennetta will next face Tamira Paszek of Austria, who upset seventh-seeded Italian Sara Errani 6-0, 7-6 (2) in their second-round match.
Fourth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia also advanced, beating Italy's Tathiana Garbin 6-1, 6-1, while No. 9 Peng Shuai of China was upset by Chan Yung-jan of Chinese Taipei, who won 6-1, 7-5.
Pennetta was in a foul mood during her match and channeled her anger at Rodionova into aces.
The Italian was incensed when Rodionova called for medical attention when leading 5-2 in the second set. Pennetta even waved away the explanation from an official.
After Rodionova applied ice to her neck and had her blood pressure checked she continued, but then called for attention again after losing the next two games. When play resumed a second time Rodionova barely competed, allowing Pennetta to fire five aces in her next two service games to complete her victory.
"I was angry," Pennetta said. "A match like this is not good for the public. The last three or four games were very bad to watch.
"For me, if you are like this on the court it is better that you go. If you have any problem and you cannot play, you cannot play. That's it. You go."
Pennetta struggled with consistency, and her fragile advantage in the first set was exposed in the second. Having broken to lead 5-3 on her sixth break point she had to fight off a break point as she served for the first set, and then fell behind 4-0 in the second.
"I was 4-0 down and I didn't breathe at all," said Pennetta, blaming a long rally at the beginning of the set. "I was so tired. At 4-0 I started to feel a little better and breathe a little more and the match started to change."
There was no drama for fourth seed Petrova although her 6-1, 6-1 win over Garbin flattered the Russian.
Petrova faced seven break points, saving them all, and converted only five of 12 break points on Garbin's serve.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily September 12, 2008)