Daily preview: Stosur leads charge for quarter-final spots

There are six singles quarter-final spots up for grabs on day four of the 2014 Hobart International.
8 January 2014, by hobartinternational.com.au

There are six singles quarter-final spots up for grabs on day four of the 2014 Hobart International.

Australia’s no. 1 and the tournament’s top seed Samantha Stosur faces rising Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic in the match of the day. It is the second match on the Domain Tennis Centre’s centre court.

The two players have met once before, with Stosur recording a straight sets win in the second round of the 2013 French Open.

Defending champion and third seed Elena Vesnina of Russia opens proceedings on centre court. She takes on Spanish qualifier Estrella Cabeza Candela.

On Court Events Tasmania, seventh-seed Klara Zakopalova of Czech Republic faces an intriguing battle against rising Chinese player Shuai Zhang.

Later in the afternoon, Australian wildcard Storm Sanders takes to centre court to play second seed Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium.

Sanders was the story of the tournament yesterday after demolishing world no. 39 Shuai Peng in her WTA main draw debut. The 19 year-old dropped only four games in an impressive display.

The 2012 Hobart International champion Mona Barthel is also in action. The world no. 35 plays Romanian Monica Niculescu in the final match on centre court in the day session.

The night session kicks off with a women’s doubles round one match between Australian pair Olivia Rogowska and Storm Sanders, who play the Spanish combination of Lara Arruabarrena and Silvia Soler-Espinosa.

The final match of the day features Spanish qualifier Garbine Muguruza, who won the 2013 Hobart International doubles title, and Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, the 2012 Hobart International runner-up.

American Alison Riske and Serbian eighth seed Bojana Jovanovski won through to the quarter-finals yesterday.

> View today’s full order of play