AMELIA ISLAND (Florida), April 7: Second and third seeds Jelena Jankovic and Daniela Hantuchova were sent spinning from the Amelia Island tennis championship on Friday.

Venus Williams also was upset in quarter-final action at the $600,000 claycourt event, but top seed and defending champion Nadia Petrova restored order with a 6-4, 7-5 win over fellow Russian and fifth seed Dinara Safina.

Petrova will next face Sybille Bammer after the Austrian felled Slovak Hantuchova 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Williams, Jankovic and Hantuchova had all been heavily fancied to reach the semis but were stunned by free-hitting opponents.

Williams lost to eighth seed Tatiana Golovin of France 6-2, 6-3 while Jankovic, a Serbian ranked ninth in the world, fell to number six seed Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-3.

Friday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Quarter-finals: 1-Nadia Petrova (Russia) beat 5-Dinara Safina (Russia) 6-4, 7-5; 13-Sybille Bammer (Austria) beat 3-Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) 2-6, 6-2, 6-2; 8-Tatiana Golovin (France) beat Venus Williams (US) 6-2, 6-3; 6-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia and Montenegro) beat 2-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia and Montenegro) 7-5, 6-3.—Reuters