Wozniacki among Rome's upset victims

ROME, May 5 (UPI) -- World No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki was defeated in straight sets in Wednesday's third-round play at the $2 million Italian Open.

Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez claimed a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Wozniacki in one of the series of upsets that have left No. 14th Nadia Petrova the only seeded player remaining on the bottom half of the bracket.

Martinez Sanchez is known as a clay-court specialist and showed that in a 79-minute victory Wednesday. She lost one of the two break points she faced in the match.

The other half of the bracket has played nearly to form with world No. 1 Serena Williams advancing with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 win over Andrea Petkovic; fourth-seeded Venus Williams stopping 16th-seeded Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-4; No. 7-seeded Jelena Jankovic routing Yanina Wickmayer 6-2, 6-0; and Maria Kirilenko, the lone unseeded quarterfinalist in the top of the draw, defeating Dominika Cibulkova 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, in third-round matches.

Also, Ana Ivanovic posted another upset, taking out sixth-seeded Elena Dementieva 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) and Lucie Safarova also eliminated a seeded player, topping Agnieszka Radwanska 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4). Petrova needed three sets to get to the quarters, beating Alexandra Dulgheru 6-0, 3-6, 6-2.

Thursday's quarterfinal schedule has Serena Williams facing Kirilenko and Venus Williams playing Jankovic in the top half matches while Ivanovic goes against Petrova and Safarova plays Martinez Sanchez in the other half of the draw.