Top seed Garbine Muguruza reached her first quarter-final of 2019 after battling past dangerous German Mona Barthel at the US$250,000 Toyota Thailand Open in Hua Hin yesterday.
The two-time major champion and former world No.1 from Spain fought back from 0-4 down in the second set to defeat Barthel 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 18 minutes at True Arena Hua Hin.
The 25-year-old Muguruza, who lost to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the fourth round at the Australian Open in Melbourne last week, will play eighth seed Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine for a place in the semi-finals tomorrow.
Muguruza broke Barthel three times in the opening set as she wrapped it up without much trouble.
The second set was a different matter, as Barthel began to blast winners with ease, particularly with her forehand, and dominated Muguruza in her early service games. Barthel won eight of Muguruza's first nine service points in the second set as she zoomed ahead to a seemingly insurmountable 4-0 lead.
It appeared for all the world like Barthel had fully wrested the momentum away from the Spaniard, but, following a coaching visit from Sam Sumyk, Muguruza started to ease her way back into the match. Solid returning from Muguruza helped generate points, and Barthel found herself committing more unforced errors.
Barthel dropped serve at love at 4-1, double faulting on break point. The German then squandered two game points at 4-3, hitting consecutive double faults to get broken again. Muguruza held to win five straight games, and while Barthel kept her serve for 5-5 to stop the streak, strong passing shots and backhands by Muguruza allowed her to break the German once more for the win.
Earlier, the 18-year-old Yastremska, who broke into top 50 for the first time on Monday, made her second quarter-final of the season with a 6-1, 6-4 defeat of wildcard Peng Shuai in one hour and 13 minutes.
Fourth seed Zheng Saisai of China joined Muguruza and Yastremska in the quarters after beating Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 6-2, 6-4. Zheng will play Australian sixth seed Ajla Tomljanovic, who knocked out Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine 7-6 (7/0), 6-1.
Meanwhile Thai hope Luksika Kumkhum rebounded from her disappointing first round exit in the singles competition on Tuesday to team up with Sweden's Cornelia Lister and beat Priscilla Hon of Australia and Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia 6-2, 7-6 (7/2) to advance to the second round of the doubles competition yesterday.
They will next play Chinese third seeds Peng Shuai and Yang Zhaoxuan.
"This is my first time to pair up with Cornelia. She played very well and I felt really confident. I hope to do well like this throughout the tournament," said Luksika.
"For the next round, it will be a tough match for us but we will enjoy the game. We will take it match by match."
