(Tennis news) Irina-Camelia Begu advanced to the quarterfinals at St Petersburg for the first time in her third attempt. She had last played the event in 2018 where she lost to Petra Kvitova in the fourth round. It was a spot on victory for the Romanian as she finally got a victory against Kvitova in their 6th career meeting. The world number 23 was down 2-0 in the first set but the fiery service returns gave her ground to cover, she had chances at 3-4 but the 31 year old did not let the lead go in vain. In the second set, the former world no 2 was beaten by flawless groundstrokes as Kvitova lost 7 straight games to lose for the first time against Irina-Camelia . Irina-Camelia defeated Kvitova 6-4, 6-0.

Elena Rybakina had to withdraw from the fourth round due to illness, she was set to face Tereza Martincova. Irina-Camelia will play against Martincova for a place in the semifinals.

Jelena Ostapenko reached her first quarterfinal in 3 months as it took her less than an hour to beat Andrea Petkovic. Ostapenko hit 40 winners in the match as Petkovic could only win three games in total. The 24 year old used her groundstrokes, slowed down the rallies with her slice and used the lob to hit winners all around the court. Both players shared 2 victories in their last four meetings as two of them have come due to mid match retirements, this time it was utterly impossible for the 34 year old to outperform the Latvian. Ostapenko defeated Petkovic 6-1, 6-2.

Aliaksandra Sasnovich reached her first quarterfinal at a WTA 500 in 4 years as she beat Jaqueline Cristian in straight sets. Sasnovich had reached the season opening Melbourne Summer 2 as a qualifier and will now face Ostapenko for a place in the last four. The Belurasian broke serve 6 times in the match as Crisitan could only do it twice, the 27 year old only lost two points of her first serve in the second set. Sasnovich defeated Cristian 6-2, 6-3.

The quarter finals has two high intensity clashes, Maria Sakkari will play against Elise Mertens and Anett Kontaveit will battle Belinda Bencic. Kontaveit seems to be the favorite as she is riding on an indoor 17 match winning streak and Sakkari seems to be the one in form as she will look to win a second career title.

Also read: Sakkari to face Mertens for semifinal spot at St. Petersburg