No. 5 seed Flavia Pennetta moves into quarterfinals with 6-4, 7-6 win over Maria Kirilenko

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Pennetta ousts Kirilenko 6-4, 7-6

CARLSBAD, Calif. — Fifth-seeded Flavia Pennetta advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-6 (5) win over Russia’s Maria Kirilenko on Thursday at the Mercury Insurance Open.

Pennetta made two early breaks stand up to win the first set before she fell behind 5-2 in the second. Pennetta then reeled off four straight games to take a 6-5 lead and was serving for the match.

But the Italian dropped her serve at love to force the tiebreaker. Neither player led by more than two points in the tiebreaker when Kirilenko saved one match point at 6-4 before Pennetta closed out the second-round match.

“After the first set, I just relaxed a little bit,” Pennetta said. “She was making some mistakes at the end of the first set so I was thinking she was going to do the same. But she started to play better and more aggressive. I was a little too far from the (base)line and I was running too much.”

Pennetta, who has beaten Kirilenko in their past three meetings, faces No. 2 seed Samantha Stosur of Australia in the next round.

“I have to rest now and be ready for running so much,” Pennetta said. “When she hits the ball it’s really powerful. My return is going to be really important.”

No. 3 seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia will face local teenager Coco Vandeweghe in a night match.

In another second-round match, Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova defeated Zheng Jie of China 6-2, 6-1.