THE WTA Tour Palermo Ladies Open and Poland Open quarter-finalists have been fully decided, with nine matches played out across the two events on a huge day of action. While the seeds all had their way in Italy, it was a different story in Poland with one of yesterday’s Round of 16 matches delayed.

AT Palermo, top seed Danielle Collins has continued her excellent form on return from injury, speeding away to a 6-4 6-1, one-hour and 19-minute victory over Australian Maddison Inglis. With eight aces to her name, Collins was hard to stop winning 76.7 per cent of her first serve points and dropping just seven service points in a runaway second set. She will take on another Australian in the quarters in Astra Sharma, after the seventh seed overcame Russian Natalia Vikhlyantseva. The one-hour and 47-minute clash looked like going down to the wire, however the Australian prevailed 6-4 7-5 off the back of Vikhlyantseva’s heavy unforced error count, piling on 11 double faults for just the one ace. Sharma as saved seven of 11 break points, and converted six of her 12 attempts. Elsewhere, fourth seed Zhang Shuai ran down American Francesca Di Lorenzo in 68 minutes 6-1 6-2, winning 62.5 per cent of the total points in the process. She will take on unseeded Serbian Olga Danilovic in the quarter finals, who overcame Katarina Zavatska in a tight 7-6(4) 7-5, two hour and 27-minute matchup.

In Poland, one hometown hopeful in Katarzyna Kawa remains after a huge win over the highest ranked player remaining in the draw, downing third seed Irina-Camelia Begu in one hour and 37 minutes, 6-2 6-4. Despite piling on seven double faults, Kawa was much more effective on serve, winning 58 per cent of her total service points to Begu’s 46.6 per cent. Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova overcame another seed, taking down Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 2-6 6-4 6-3, requiring two hours and 15 minutes to do so. Sasnovich was error-ridden, piling on nine double faults, as Kozlova claimed 53 per cent of the total points to claim the victory. Meanwhile, ninth seed Nuria Parrizas Diaz was much more fortunate, claiming a 6-4 6-2 victory over Amina Anshba, as Georgian Ekaterine Gorgodze overcame a tough first set to take down American Varvara Lepchenko, and yesterday’s delayed matchup between Belgian Maryna Zanevska and Slovak Viktoria Kuzmova saw the former speed through to claim a 65-minute, 6-2 6-1 victory.

PALERMO LADIES OPEN ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

[1] Danielle Collins (USA) defeated Maddison Inglis (AUS) 6-4 6-1
[4] Zhang Shuai (CHN) defeated Francesca Di Lorenzo (USA) 6-1 6-2
[7] Astra Sharma (AUS) defeated Natalia Vikhlyantseva (RUS) 6-4 7-5
Olga Danilovic (SRB) defeated Katarina Zavatska (UKR) 7-6 7-5

POLAND OPEN ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

Katarzyna Kawa (POL) defeated [3] Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) 6-2 6-4
Kateryna Kozlova (UKR) defeated [6] Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR) 2-6 6-4 6-3
[9] Nuria Parrizas Diaz (ESP) defeated Amina Anshba (RUS) 6-4 6-2
Ekaterine Gorgodze (GEO) defeated Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 7-6 6-2
Maryna Zanevska (BEL) defeated Viktoria Kuzmova (SVK) 6-2 6-1

Picture credit: Palermo Ladies Open