ITALIAN qualifier, Elisabetta Cocciaretto has continued her dream run at the Copa Colsanitas fantasy tennis tournament by moving into the last eight of the event. Ranked 158th in the world, Cocciaretto was the lowest ranked player to make it through to the second round, and is well and truly the underdog for the title by the final eight with 64th ranked Alize Cornet the next lowest ranked player in her half of the draw – interestingly enough her next opponent. Cocciaretto joins second seed Katerina Siniakova, eighth seed Anna Blinkova, and Cornet in the last eight after impressive straight sets wins.

Cocciaretto made light work of former number one, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka in a one-sided contest, 6-0 6-3. The Italian played some inspired tennis to show just how much of a danger she can be on the clay courts, moving through to the next round in 62 minutes. Now she face Cornet who had a bit more of a struggle to advance, downing Romanian Irina Camelia Begu, 7-6 6-4. There was nothing between the combatants in the first set with the set going all the way to a tiebreaker before Cornet broke free to win 7-4. The second set was much of the same, but a break in the penultimate game helped the Frenchwoman gain the upper hand and then hold serve to win in an hour and 47 minutes.

In the other quarter final, two of the three highest ranked remaining players face off with Siniakova and Blinkova locking horns. Siniakova got past American qualifier Ann Li in straight sets, 7-5 6-1, taking over an hour to finally win three consecutive games against the world number 130 and taking out the match to book a spot in the next round. Blinkova had a tough clash against fellow up and comer Jil Teichmann, having to shake off her opponent after a nail-biting first set to eventually win, 7-6 6-3 in an hour and 36 minutes.

With half of the quarter finals decided, the other half will be determined tomorrow with seventh seed, Fiona Ferro taking on Su Wei Hsieh, while Anastasia Potapova meets with American qualifier, Coco Vandeweghe. In the other two games, third seed Alison Van Uytvanck takes on German, Andrea Petkovic as German compatriot Laura Siegemund meets Viktoria Kuzmova.

ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

[2] Katerina Siniakova (CZE) defeated [Q] Ann Li (USA) 7-5 6-1
[8] Anna Blinkova (RUS) defeated Jil Teichmann (SUI) 7-6 6-3
Alize Cornet (FRA) defeated Irina Camelia Begu (ROU) 7-6 6-4
[Q] Elisabetta Cocciaretto (ITA) defeated Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 6-0 6-3