The top-seeded Maria Sakkari and Anett Kontaveit qualified for the quarterfinals of the indoor tennis tournament in St Petersburg.
The Greek player Maria Sakkari managed to win by 2-0 (6:2, 6:4) versus the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova. The match lasted an hour and 16 minutes and was completely under the control of the top-seeded Greek player, who did not give a single breakpoint to her opponent.
For a place in the semifinals, Maria Sakkari will play with the 8th-seeded Belgian Elise Mertens. Elise Mertens won her match versus Croatian Petra Martic with 2-1 (6:4, 3:6, 6:2). The match lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes and was the longest for the day.
The leader in the lower half of the scheme and 2nd-seeded, Anett Kontaveit, continues to the next phase. The Estonian won by 2-0 (6:4, 7:5) against Sorana Cîrstea from Romania.
The critical moment for Anett Kontaveit was in the middle of the second set when she allowed Sorana Cîrstea to break for 4:3. In the next game, however, the second-seeded Estonian returned the break, and shortly after she managed to make another break, which won the match.
For a place in the semifinals, Anett Kontaveit will play with Olympic champion and 5th-seeded Belinda Bencic. The Swiss defeated Kaja Juvan from Slovenia with 2-0 (6:1, 7:6) in exactly 80 minutes.
Belinda Bencic won the first set in less than half an hour after three consecutive breaks, but in the second she faced bigger difficulties. Kaja Juvan led by 4:2 but allowed an equalizer. This led to a tiebreak in which Belinda Bencic quickly took the lead with 4:1 points and won the match.
