KATERINA Sinakova has flexed her muscles with a dominant double-donut performance against Japanese lucky loser Nagi Hanatani to moved through to the quarter finals in the Tennis in the Land tournament in Cleveland overnight. Seven matches were played across the two WTA Tour tournament in the United States, with players at Cleveland and Chicago getting some last minute practice ahead of the US Open.

Siniakova, the world number 53 needed a swift 45 minutes to win all 12 games, 6-0 6-0 and bundle out Hanatani – ranked 402nd in the world – without any trouble whatsoever. Siniakova won a whopping 77.8 per cent of the match points, and only dropped four total points on serve, breaking the Japanese player six times to storm to the dominant performance and book her place in the last eight.

Only two other matches were played on the day in Cleveland, with a couple of straight sets wins to seeds. Second seed Anett Kontaveit booked her place in the quarter finals with a 6-3 6-3 triumph over France’s Caroline Garcia, while ninth seed Chinese talent Zhang Shuai knocked over United States wildcard Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 6-4 7-6.

Siniakova will now take on Kontaveit in one of the quarter finals, to play the winner of Shuai and seventh seed Sara Sorribes Tormo. In the top half of the draw, an all-seeded clash between Daria Kasatkina and sixth seed Magda Linette face off, whilst Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich will look to continue her run up against Irina-Camelia Begu, with both having knocked off seeded players on their run to the quarter finals.

Meanwhile over in Chicago, the Round of 16 was completed with four matches at the Illinois WTA Tour 250 event. The top seed out on court was 2019 Roland Garros runner-up Marketa Vondrousova, with the fifth seed Czech winning 6-1 1-0 via retirement when Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck pulled the pin early in the second term. At that stage the Czech was firmly in control having only spent 52 minutes on court.

Vondrousova will take on French ninth seed Alize Cornet, who took care of Italian Jasmine Paolini in another second round clash, winning 7-6 6-4. The match lasted an epic two hours and nine minutes to be the second longest of the four clashes, with a 7-4 first set tiebreaker needed for Cornet to claim the win. The Frenchwoman was more consistent on both serve (57 to 46.4 per cent) and return (53.6 to 43 per cent), winning more than 64 per cent of her first serve points compared to Paolini’s 46.2 per cent. She broke five times to four, but did it from less chances (7-11), making the most of her chances when presented with them.

The other two winners were Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson and Czech Republic’s Tereza Martincova. Peterson upset sixth seed Swiss Viktorija Golubic 7-6 6-3, while Martincova won in a come-from-behind three-set win over Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei, 3-6 6-4 6-2 in two hours and 17 minutes on court. Martincova won 66.1 per cent of her first serve points off a higher 68.1 per cent clip, compared to Su-Wei’s 53.8 per cent off 57.1 per cent.

The winner of the Martincova-Peterson quarter final will have to face one of top seed Elina Monfils or seventh seed Kristina Mladenovic, whilst Ukrainian eighth seed Marta Kostyuk takes on Varvara Gracheva in the other quarter final.

TENNIS IN THE LAND ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

[2] Anett Kontaveit (EST) defeated Caroline Garcia (FRA) 6-3 6-3
[9] Zhang Shuai (CHN) defeated [WC] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) 6-4 7-6
Katerina Siniakova (CZE) defeated [LL] Nagi Hanatani (JPN) 6-0 6-0

CHICAGO WOMEN’S OPEN ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

[5] Marketa Vondrousova (CZE) defeated Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL) 6-1 1-0 RET
Rebecca Peterson (SWE) defeated [6] Viktorija Golubic (SUI) 7-6 6-3
[9] Alize Cornet (FRA) defeated Jasmine Paolini (ITA) 7-6 6-4
Tereza Martincova (CZE) defeated Hsieh Su-Wei (TAI) 3-6 6-4 6-2

Picture credit: Marta Magni Images/MEF Tennis Events