Top seeds advance in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva, the top two seeds, took different paths Wednesday into the third round of the Los Angeles Women's Open.

Safina, the top seed and coming off a tournament victory at the Slovenia Open, recorded a routine 6-2, 6-4 victory over Daniela Hantuchova. That set up a third-round match with Jie Zheng, who ousted Elena Vesnina 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.

Zvonareva had a much more difficult time in getting past the second round, but she eventually defeated Shuai Peng 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6). Next up for Zvonareva will be Yanina Wickmayer, who won over Jill Craybas 7-6 (7-2), 6-1.

In other second-round matches Wednesday, No. 5 seed Nadia Petrova eliminated Shahar Peer 6-4, 2-6, 6-3; No. 7 Dominika Cibulkova fell to Urszula Radwanska 6-4, 6-7 (8-10), 6-4; and Samantha Stosur was a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Maria Kirilenko.

Stosur defeated Serena Williams in the quarterfinals in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford last week.