Pavlyuchenkova reaches New Haven quarters, Cibulkova rallies

New Haven, August 24: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova edged Carla Suarez Navarro to advance to the quarter-finals of the Connecticut Open, where second seed Dominika Cibulkova battled through.

Russian sixth seed Pavlyuchenkova booked her seventh quarter-final berth of the year with a 7-6 (7-3) 6-0 victory in New Haven on Wednesday (August 23).

While Pavlyuchenkova cruised in the second set, she was forced to dig deep in the opener at the WTA Premier tournament.

Pavlyuchenkova gave up a 4-1 lead in the first set but rallied to see off the Spaniard in a tie-break as she went on to progress to the last eight.

"I fight for every point, I want to win every point and every match so it gets a bit emotional," Pavlyuchenkova said.

"I felt a little bit tired, so I didn't want to lose the first set for sure. Carla is a great player, a great fighter and was giving me a hard time in both sets - even the second set, where the score doesn't really show how tough it was."

Standing in the way of Pavlyuchenkova and a semi-final spot is 2014 Australian Open runner-up Cibulkova.

Cibulkova rallied to trump Alize Cornet 2-6 6-2 6-4 in the round of 16.

She twice found herself a break down in the final set before storming home to secure the remaining quarter-final place.

Kirsten Flipkens and Zhang Shuai also won though courtesy of respective victories against Ana Bogdan and Magda Linette.

Source: OPTA