Schiavone overpowers Date Krumm at Pan Pacific, top-seeded Wozniacki advances

Schiavone overpowers Date Krumm at Pan Pacific

TOKYO — French Open champion Francesca Schiavone defeated Kimiko Date Krumm 6-3, 6-3 Wednesday to reach the Pan Pacific Open quarterfinals.

Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki cruised overpowered Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-1, 6-2.

Date Krumm beat defending champion Maria Sharapova in the first round and celebrated her 40th birthday on Tuesday with a win over Daniela Hantuchova, but was no match for the fifth-seeded Italian.

Schiavone outhit Date Krumm and broke serve three times in the first set to lead 5-1.

Date Krumm fought back in the second to take a 3-2 lead, but was broken in the seventh game and couldn’t recover.

“I said to her at the end it was an honor to play her,” Schiavone said. “I’ve followed her career and she’s not just a great tennis player, she’s a great person. To come back and show the people anything is possible is really inspiring. And today we were playing on the senior tour — we were 70 together!”

American qualifier Coco Vandeweghe defeated Germany’s Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-0 and will meet eighth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who advanced when Marion Bartoli of France retired ill after losing the first set 6-2.

Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, the Wimbledon and U.S. Open quarterfinalist, beat third-seeded Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 6-4. Kanepi will play Schiavone.

Date Krumm, the Tokyo champion in 1995, turned professional in 1989. She retired in 1996, and returned to the tour in 2008. Earlier this year, she became the oldest woman to beat a top 10 player when she defeated Dinara Safina at the French Open.

Date Krumm played last week in Seoul, and said her busy schedule was a factor in Wednesday’s defeat.

“This morning, I felt a little bit tired,” she said. “She used a lot of spin and made me run very wide so I ended up tired.”

Wozniacki defeated Pavlyuchenkova for the fifth straight time — and third time this year — and will meet No. 6 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the quarterfinals. Radwanska beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-3.

“I feel like I am playing good tennis,” Wozniacki said. “Today was a tough match even though the score was 6-1, 6-2. I really had to be focused. Anastasia is a good player.”

In other matches, second-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia beat Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4, 6-0 to set up a quarterfinal against seventh-seeded compatriot Elena Dementieva, who beat Flavia Pennetta, 6-4, 6-2.