BRISBANE, Jan 7: French Open champion Ana Ivanovic survived two match points before sealing her place in the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International on Wednesday.

On a day when all the leading players were made to work overtime at the Australian Open warm-up tournament, Amelie Mauresmo and her French compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were also lucky to stay alive.

Top seed Ivanovic lost her opening set tiebreaker and was twice down match point in the second set but regained her composure to overpower Italian qualifier Roberta Vinci 6-7, 7-5, 6-1.

Mauresmo spent more than three hours on court, including 89 minutes for the deciding third set, before finally beating fellow Frenchwoman Julie Coin 5-7, 6-2, 7-6.

Tsonga had a torrid time in his clash with Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen, clawing back from a terrible start to win 0-6, 7-6, 7-6.

Last year’s Australian Open runner-up seemingly had no answer to the Finn as he conceded the first set in less than half an hour and was facing an early exit before he rallied to win both tiebreakers.

Florent Serra provided France with their fourth success of the day when he eliminated Juergen Melzer 6-4, 6-3.

Results: (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s:

Second round: Kei Nishikori (Japan) bt 5-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 7-6(7), 6-3; 8-Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) bt Michael Llodra (France) 7-6(2), 6-3; 2-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) bt Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) 0-6, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5); 3-Fernando Verdasco (Spain) bt Mario Ancic (Croatia) 6-2, 6-3; Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) bt Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) 6-3, 6-4; Florent Serra (France) bt Juergen Melzer (Austria) 6-4, 6-3.

Women’s:

Second round: 1-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) bt Roberta Vinci (Italy) 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-1; Olga Govortsova (Belarus) bt Sesil Karatantcheva (Bulgaria) 6-0, 5-7, 7-5; 5-Amelie Mauresmo (France) bt Julie Coin (France) 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (13-11); Sara Errani (Italy) bt Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria) 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 6-3.

SEEDS FALL

AUCKLAND: Top seed Elena Dementieva beat local favourite Marina Erakovic to grab a quarter-final spot in the Auckland Classic here on Wednesday as other seeds tumbled out of the women’s tournament.

The world number four and Olympic champion beat the New Zealander 6-2, 6-3 as five of the eight seeds fell in second round matches.

Results:

Second round: Ayumi Morita (Japan) bt 4-Aleksandra Wozniak (Canada) 7-5, 6-2; Edina Gallovits (Romania) bt 3-Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) 6-3, 6-3; 1-Elena Dementieva (Russia) bt Marina Erakovic (New Zealand) 6-2, 6-3; Anne Keothavong (Britain) bt 8-Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) 6-2, 6-4; Aravane Rezai (France) bt 7-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) 6-2, 6-3; 2-Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) bt Jill Craybas (US) 6-4, 7-5; 5-Shahar Peer (Israel) bt Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Czech Republic) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2; Elena Vesnina (Russia) bt 6-Nicole Vaidisova (Czech Republic) 6-4, 6-3.—Agencies