Sanchez, Kournikova advance to quarter-finals

But, Sanchez-Vicario, the 1993 and 1994 champion in this event, stopped committing unforced errors, hit winners at the net and regained her ground-stroke accuracy to win the next five games and the match.

Kournikova made short work of Nicole Pratt in the opening set, then struggled mightily to finish off the unseeded Australian in a rain-delayed third round match.

The win sends Kournikova, into the quarter-finals against Paola Suarez, who followed up her previous upset of second-seeded Serena Williams by rolling past Canadian Sonya Jeyaseelan 6-2 6-3.

While three of the top four seeds are still alive, Kournikova will be a solid favourite against Suarez, the world’s no. 62-ranked player, in her bid to get her first win after coming up empty in her first 66 WTA events. Kournikova, ranked no. 14, is the only top 20 player without a singles title on her resume.

Because rain forced postponement of five third-round matches, top-seeded Mary Pierce and fourth-seeded Conchita Martinez also need to win two matches in one day to get to the semi-finals.

Second straight win for Medvedev

ESTORIL (PORTUGAL): Former holder Andrei Medvedev continued his comeback try from tennis hard times, waiting out an afternoon-long weather delay before finally earning a 6-2, 6-4 second-round win over Markus Hipfl at the 765,000 Estoril Open on Friday.

Medvedev will next take on fourth seed Tim Henman. The Briton beat an approaching rain-storm by just a few minutes as he hammered out a 6-4, 6-4 win into the quarter-finals over Gaston Gaudio of Argentina.

Spain’s popular Carlos Moya continued his come back from last year’s back injury, putting out second seed Magnus Norman of Sweden 6-1, 6-3.

French eighth seed Nicolas Escude joined Henman in the last eight, defeating Juan Marin of Costa Rica 6-1, 6-2.

Spanish veteran Francisco Clavet followed up on his first-round upset of top seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, knocking out Juan Chela of Argentina 6-4, 7-5.

Two women also advanced into the quarters on their side of the draw. Italian Tathiana Garbin upset French third seed Anne-Gaelle Sidot 7-6 (9-7), 6-4. Spain’s number eight, Angelica Montolio won through against Seda Noorlander of Holland 6-1, 6-4.

The weather delays forced two second-round matches to be put off until tomorrow. Third seed Nicolas Lapentti of Ecudaor will face Australian Richard Fromberg and Argentine Franco Squillari will take on Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain a day later than scheduled as officials hope to catch up the schedule.

Agassi pulls right hamstring

ATLANTA: World number one Andre Agassi retired after injuring his right hamstring here on Thursday, a mishap that could threaten the American tennis star’s defense of his French Open title next month.

Top seed Agassi, a four-time champion here at the 375,000-dollar ATP Atlanta challenge, retired after losing the first set 6-4 to Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic in a second-round match.

On a rainy, chilly evening, Agassi was facing break point in the ninth game when he extended himself and came up limping. Vanek held serve in the next game to take the set and Agassi retired from the match.

Fourth seed and two-time champion Michael Chang of the United States, advanced to the quarter-finals earlier today by pulling out a 7-5, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 win over Julian Alonso of Spain.

First-round Davis Cup hero, Chris Woodruff of the United States, seeded fifth, rallied past Todd Woodbridge of Australia, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and will meet Chang in the quarter-finals.

Seventh seed Jeff Tarango of the United States was tied with Michal Tabara of the Czech Republic in the third set when the rains came. After the delay, Tarango pulled out a 5-7 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) victory.