SARASOTA, Florida, April 4: Russian second seed Anastasia Myskina and compatriot Elena Dementieva both advanced to the quarterfinals of the Sarasota Open on Thursday with contrasting three set wins.

Myskina, the winner of the Qatar Open in February, dropped the first set 5-7 to Nadia Petrova. She rallied to win the second set 6-4 and was leading the third 1-0 when her opponent retired with a sprained right ankle.

Dementieva, seeded fifth, also dropped the opening set in her match to France’s Mary Pierce before rallying against the former French Open champion 3-6 6-1 6-2 to reach her first quarter-final of the season.

Myskina and Dementieva will now meet for a place in the semi-finals of the $140,000 claycourt event.

Argentina’s Clarisa Fernandez, a surprise semi-finalist at last year’s French Open, continued to enjoy a strong start to the claycourt season upsetting sixth seed Anna Pistolesi of Israel 6-3 4-6 6-4.

Up next for Fernandez is Australian qualifier Alicia Molik, who eased past Spain’s Conchita Martinez, 6-2 6-1.

In other second-round action, Argentina’s Paola Suarez slipped past Slovenia’s Maja Matevzic 3-6 6-2 6-0 while another former-French Open champion Iva Majoli of Croatia held off Uzbekistan’s Iroda Tulyaganova 5-7 6-0 7-5.

Results: Elena Dementieva bt Mary Pierce 3-6 6-1 6-2; Anastasia Myskina bt Nadia Petrova 5-7 6-4 1-0 retired; Clarisa Fernandez bt Anna Pistolesi 6-3 4-6 6-4; Iva Majoli bt Iroda Tulyaganova 5-7 6-0 7-5; Alicia Molik bt Conchita Martinez 6-2 6-1; Paola Suarez bt Maja Matevzic 3-6 6-2 6-0—Reuters