Fourth seed Amelie Mauresmo of France worked her way back from a slow start to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals in London on Tuesday, defeating Italian veteran Silvia Farina Elia 7-5, 6-3.
Mauresmo will play the winner of the tie between Paola Suarez of Argentina and Rita Grande of Italy for a place in the semifinals.
Rated the main threat to top seed and defending champion Serena Williams, Mauresmo blew a worrying succession of break points against the 32-year old Italian before she finally put one away to wrap up the first set 7-5 in 53 minutes.
That was all she needed to unleash her full array of shots, taking the next three games in a row to quash any hopes Farina Elia might have had of staging a comeback.
The end came with Mauresmo serving for the match at 5-3. She got to 40-0 but squandered two match points before forcing an error out of the Italian with a deep groundstroke to the baseline.
Mauresmo at 24 is still in search of her first Grand Slam title after she first burst on to the scene by reaching the Australian Open final in 1999, losing to Martina Hingis.
Her latest disappointment came in the French Open last month where nerves once again got the better of her as she lost in straight sets in the quarterfinals to Russia’s Elena Dementieva.
But such shrewd observers as Martina Navratilova and Virginia Wade have said that her powerful serving and groundstrokes are ideal for grass, making her their favourite for the title.
To date she has proved they have a point as she has yet to lose a single set on her way into the last eight. — Sapa-AFP