Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova reached the quarterfinals of the AEGON Classic in Birmingham on Thursday after a comeback win over Marina Erakovic of New Zealand.
Australian Open quarterfinalist Makarova recovered from a first-set thrashing to outplay Erakovic for the rest of the match and take a 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 win.
Makarova’s opponent in the quarterfinal will be either Melinda Czink of Hungary or either 13th seed Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan, who has already beaten two Russians.
In other play, Elena Vesnina, who beat Christina McHale of the United States in the second round, failed to show the same level of performance Thursday and was demolished by American qualifier Melanie Oudin 6-0, 6-2.
World No. 20 Roberta Vinci of Italy broke down fierce resistance from Britain’s Heather Watson to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.
In the quarterfinal, fourth seed Vinci will meet qualifier Jie Zheng of China who easily defeated Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic earlier today 6-4, 6-1.
Birmingham is traditionally seen as one of the key warm-up grass-court events for Wimbledon, which starts on June 25.
The AEGON Classic ends June 17 and has a prize fund of $220,000.
