Thai star top seed in Indonesia WTA Tour 2002

Agencies, Tokyo

Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn powered into the quarterfinals of the Princess Cup here Thursday with a solid straight sets win over Argentina's Clarisa Fernandez.

The seventh-seeded Asian star turned in an aggressive performance to wrap up a 6-4, 6-4 win in 85 minutes against her South American opponent, the world number 35.

The Thai had to battle back from a 0-2 deficit in the first set. But, after leveling at 2-2, Tamarine played aggressively, coming to the net on every short ball and neutralizing Fernandez's effective drop shots, to open up a 5-3 lead before taking the first set.

Tamarine raced ahead 3-0 in the second set, taking advantage of Fernandez's double faults and was never in danger afterwards until she finished off the match on her third match point.

"She (Fernandez) changed her game, she was more attacking, she hit her shots aggressively. I didn't realize it," said Tamarine.

"Her balls are sometimes very high, so if I didn't come in (to the net) and attack, it's gonna take forever. She runs for everything, she runs fast. I needed to come in and be aggressive today."

But while Tamarine was left looking ahead to the last eight there was disappointment for Asian rival and local favorite Ai Sugiyama, the Japanese number one.

Sugiyama bowed out of the tournament after going down to Australia's Nicole Pratt, losing 3-6, 6-4, 3-6.

"Obviously Ai's been playing very well the last three months, so it was really a difficult match today," said Pratt.

"Ai likes to play players that generally play fast pace and one pace. In my game, I have the ability to mix the ball with some slices, some hard balls, some high balls. That's the game she does not like to play against."

Meanwhile, American Amy Frazier celebrated her 30th birthday Thursday by eliminating fourth seed Anna Smashnova of Israel 6-4, 6-3.

In Quebec, Canada, top seed Silvia Farina Elia of Italy advanced to the quarterfinals of the Bell Challenge on Wednesday, beating American Laura Granville 6-1, 6-4.

Defending champion Meghann Shaughnessy, seeded fifth in the WTA Tour event, lost her second-round match, falling 6-4, 6-4 to Switzerland's Marie-Gaianeh Mikaelian.

Second seed Elena Dementieva of Russia also was eliminated, while third seed Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria reached the quarterfinals. Germany's Angelika Roesch beat Dementieva 7-6 (0), 6-7 (1), 6-4, and Maleeva defeated Anousjka van Exel of the Netherlands 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.