Argentine Gisela Dulko has won through to the quarterfinals at the Moorilla Hobart International for the second year in a row after beating Austrian Tamira Paszek.
The tournament eighth seed prevailed 6-1 0-6 7-6 (5) after two hours in hot, windy conditions.
“Right now I feel a little bit relieved; I really wanted to be in the next round. It was tough today after winning the first set 6-1 then suddenly I was 6-0 down … it was so quick. I just stopped moving for a while and then she was playing better,” Dulko said.
“My goal is to win as many matches as possible and try to go to the Australian Open in good shape and playing good tennis.”
Dulko will next play the winner of Tuesday night’s second round match between top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues and Russian Alla Kudryavtseva.
Seventh seed Jie Zheng of China defeated countrywoman Shuai Peng 6-2 6-1 to also advance to the quarterfinals.
Zheng will play fourth seed Alona Bondarenko in the last eight after she knocked out France’s Alize Cornet 6-4 3-6 6-2.