29 October 2004	Friday	14 Ramazan 1425

VIENNA, Oct 28: World number two Amelie Mauresmo shrugged off a thigh strain to cruise into the last eight of the Linz Open with a 6-4 6-0 win over Marta Domachowska on Thursday.

The French top seed, who missed last week's Zurich tournament because of the injury, had an average start against the 18-year-old Pole but upped her game in the second set with some confident ground strokes to destroy her opponent.

Fourth seed Vera Zvonareva earlier outfought Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy 7-6 6-4 to make the quarterfinals.

The Russian is 11th in the WTA Tour Championships standings and has an outside chance of reaching the end-of-season Los Angeles tournament if she wins in Linz and impresses at the final event in Philadelphia next month.

The top eight play at the Tour Championships in mid-November with Serena Williams occupying the last berth, although with Justine Henin-Hardenne out for the rest of the year to recover from exhaustion ninth-placed Venus is also in contention.

Third-seeded Serena, a six-time grand slam winner, harmed her chances of qualifying when she suffered her earliest tournament defeat since April 2000 going down 7-6 6-2 to Russian qualifier Alina Jidkova in the second round on Wednesday.

Russians Nadia Petrova and Elena Bovina won through to the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Second round results:

Amelie Mauresmo bt Marta Domachowska 6-4 6-0; Meghann Shaughnessy bt Julia Schruff 7-5 6-2; Vera Zvonareva bt Nathalie Dechy 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.

Stockholm Open

STOCKHOLM: Second round results from the 650,000 euros Stockholm Open ATP tennis tournament on Thursday.

Fernando Verdasco bt Raemon Sluiter 6-4 6-2; Michael Ryderstedt bt Feliciano Lopez 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-3.

Swiss Indoors tournament

BASEL, (Switzerland): Results of second round matches at the 989,750 euros Swiss Indoors tennis tournament on Thursday.

Second round matches:

Stefan Koubek bt Gaston Gaudio 6-1 1-6 6-3; Bohdan Ulihrach bt Ivo Heuberger (Switzerland) 6-1 6-4; Jiri Novak bt Tommy Robredo walkover

St Petersburg Open

SAINT PETERSBURG: Results from the fourth day of the one-million-dollar Saint Petersburg Open ATP tennis tournament here Thursday.

Second round matches:

Ivo Karlovic bt Alex Corretja 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (10/8); Michael Llodra bt Michael Kohlmann 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.-Agencies