PARIS, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Qualifier Jelena Dokic pulled off an upset Thursday and draws top-seed Kim Clijsters in the quarterfinals of the GDF Suez Open tennis tournament in Paris.
Dokic defeated fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) and earned a shot Friday against Clijsters, who will capture the world No. 1 ranking if she wins. Clijsters is 6-3 lifetime against Dokic but they haven't played since 2003. The last time they did play, Dokic beat Clijsters, who was No. 1 at the time.
Dokic beat Petrova without dropping serve and winning a healthy 72 percent of the point on serve.
No. 2-seeded Maria Sharapova exited the draw with an upper-respiratory illness. Her replacement, Stephanie Cohen-Aloro, pushed Bethanie Mattek-Sands to nearly 2 hours before falling 7-5, 6-4.
The rest of the favorites won Thursday, including No. 3-seeded Kaia Kanepi, who cashed in all five of her break-point chances in beating Sofia Arvidsson 6-3, 6-4.
No. 4-seeded Petra Kvitova edged past Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (11-9) in a match that took 3 hours, 15 minutes. Also, sixth-seeded Andrea Petkovic beat Kristina Kucova 6-4, 6-2 and No. 7-seeed Yanina Wickmayer blasted Klara Zakopalova 6-1, 6-3.
Kanepi draws eighth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova in her quarterfinal match while Wickmayer plays Kvitova and Petkovic goes against Mattek-Sands in addition to the Dokic-Clijsters match.
