Svitolina, Sabalenka surge into San Jose quarters

Elina Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka eased into the Silicon Valley Classic quarter-finals on a good day for the seeds.

Svitolina, the top seed at the WTA Premier event in San Jose, was untroubled by Daria Kasatkina in a 6-3 6-1 victory on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian is enjoying another fine year and her last-eight clash with Maria Sakkari will mark her sixth quarter-final of 2019 and she has won four of the previous five.

Sakkari, the seventh seed, was tested before getting past qualifier Mayo Hibi 4-6 6-4 6-2 at the hard-court tournament in California.

The second-seeded Sabalenka ended Coco Vandeweghe's first tournament of the year courtesy of a 6-3 6-3 victory.

.@SabalenkaA marches into the @MubadalaSVC quarterfinals!She defeats Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-3 pic.twitter.com/QHGPqknWtO
— WTA (@WTA) July 31, 2019

Former world number nine Vandeweghe was making her return from ankle and foot injuries.

It was four from four for the seeds, with Carla Suarez Navarro beating Bethanie Mattek-Sands 3-6 6-1 6-2.

.@CarlaSuarezNava moves into the @MubadalaSVC quarterfinals!She survives Mattek-Sands, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 pic.twitter.com/fWpF8S1acz
— WTA (@WTA) August 1, 2019

At the Citi Open, the only two seeds in action – Sofia Kenin and Monica Puig – departed.

Kenin went down to fellow American Lauren Davis 5-7 6-3 6-4 and Puig lost to qualifier Anna Kalinskaya 2-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.

Kristina Mladenovic edged 17-year-old wildcard Hailey Baptiste 6-4 4-6 6-3 and Jessica Pegula overcame Iga Swiatek 5-7 6-4 6-1.

Published 01 Aug 2019, 10:44 IST