tennis roundup Thursday’s events

Bank of the West Classic

STANFORD, CALIF.

Maria Sharapova, the fifth seed, beat Olga Govortsova, 6-3, 6-3, and eighth-seeded Victoria Azarenka topped Melanie Oudin, 6-3, 6-1, to advance to the quarterfinals. Maria Kirilenko knocked off sixth-seeded Shahar Peer, 6-4, 6-3.

Farmers Classic

LOS ANGELES

Fourth-seeded Feliciano Lopez defeated Dudi Sela 7-6 (7), 6-4 in the second round. No. 5 seed Ernests Gulbis wasn’t so lucky. He lost to Alejandro Falla 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10) . Lopez won his hard-court season debut, having been idle since reaching the round of 32 at Wimbledon. Falla had lost in the first round of his three previous tournaments, including to Roger Federer at Wimbledon. The left-hander, ranked 65th in the world, advanced to his third quarterfinal of the year. Gulbis was playing his first tournament in two months after sustaining a hamstring injury in a first-round loss at the French Open. He was clearly rusty and easily irritated by fans who yelled during his service motion.

Istanbul Cup

ISTANBUL

Elena Baltacha upset top-seeded Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 6-2 in the second round. Schiavone, the French Open champion, struggled with her serve and quickly fell behind in the second set. The Italian had eight double faults to none by Baltacha, and her first serve percentage was 42, far below the Briton’s 59. In other matches, third-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3, 6-2, Sorana Cirstea defeated Johanna Larsson, 6-4, 6-4 and Jarmila Groth defeated Anna Lapushchenkova, 6-2, 6-3.

Swiss Open

GSTAAD, SWITZERLAND

Top seeded Mikhail Youzhny advanced to the quarterfinals, beating wild card Alexander Sadecky 7-5, 6-4. Youzhny next faces Yuri Schukin, who defeated Frederico Gil 6-3, 6-3 on a rainy day on clay courts. Igor Andreev, completed a second-round victory over Marco Chiudinelli, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (6). The match had been suspended late Wednesday.

Croatia Open

UMAG, CROATIA

The second round of the Croatia Open tournament was postponed for a day due to torrential rain.

Associated Press