AMELIA ISLAND, Fla., April 5 (UPI) -- Top seed Nadia Petrova, No. 2 Jelena Jankovic and unseeded Venus Williams were winners Thursday at the Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island, Fla.
Petrova -- the defending champion from Russia -- had no trouble with 15th-seeded Chinese Jie Zheng 6-2, 6-3. She will meet fifth-seeded fellow Russian Dinara Safina, who easily defeated 11th seed Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia, 6-3, 6-4, to get to the round of eight.
Jankovic easily eliminated Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, 6-2, 6-0, and will meet sixth seeded fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic, who beat Nathalie Dechy of France, 6-1, 6-1.
Williams dispatched fellow unseeded American Meilen Tu, 6-2, 7-5, to set up a quarterfinal match Friday with eight-seeded Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin, who eliminated No. 12 Samantha Stosur of Australia, 6-2, 6-1.
Thirteenth-seeded Austrian Sybille Bammer crushed Croatian qualifier Karolina Sprem, 6-2, 6-3. Bammer advanced to a quarterfinal match against third seed Daniela Hantuchova, who defeated fellow Slovak Dominika Cibulkova, 6-1, 6-4.
The tournament winner will earn $88,260.
