Kvitova and Bartoli advance to Paris Open quarter-finals

The 45^th ranked German Mona Barthel, defeated Urszula Radwanska, younger sister of the more famous Agnieszka, in the first round of the 2013 Paris Open. In her second round match, she took on the tournament’s 5^th seed, Italian Roberta Vinci, who had earlier defeated Simona Halep. In a very good win for the German, she got the better of the much higher ranked player in a three setter where Vinci took the first set 6-4, but came back to take the second and third sets 6-1 6-3 in just short of an hour and a half. She will meet 3^rd seed, Marion Bartoli, in the quarters.

Bartoli had a bye in the first round and on Wednesday defeated the young American Christina McHale, in straight sets 7-5 6-1 in the same time it took for Barthel to play three sets. Going into this match, the Frenchwoman led the head to head stats two to one, but McHale had beaten Bartoli in a surprise second round result in the US Open in 2011. The first set was quite a tussle, but Bartoli got her act together and easily won the second set to move into the quarter finals.

Also in play on Wednesday, the 2^nd seed Petra Kvitova, who was wild carded into this tournament, took out the qualifier from Switzerland, Stephanie Voegele, who is ranked at 100. Kvitova has not been playing at her best lately, but managed to scrape by in the first set on a tie breaker which she took 7-5, then found her range and began hitting her shots deep into the corners and on the baseline to finish the set 6-1 after being on court for less than an hour and a half. She will next take on the 87^th ranked wild card, Kristina Mladenovic, conqueror of 7^th seed Julia Goerges and the much higher ranked Yanina Wickmayer, in the quarters.

Tags Marion Bartoli Mona Barthel Petra Kvitova Roberta Vinci Stephanie Voegele WTA Paris Open 2013