Anne Keothavong is safely through to the quarter-final at the RMK Championships in Memphis.
Keothavong recovered from 4-0 down in the second set to see off the highly rated 16 year-old from Portugal, Michelle Larcher de Brito, 7-6(2) 6-4 in Wednesday’s second round.
The British No.1 will now face Marina Erakovic of New Zealand on Thursday when she will attempt to avenge the defeat suffered in the Surbiton Trophy final last summer.
In the doubles, Keothavong and Italian Maria Elena Camerin bowed out in the quarter-final after being beaten by the No.1 seeds, American Vania King and Russian Alla Kudryavtseva, 4-6 4-6.
Sarah Borwell and American Courtney Nagle were also knocked out, losing their opening match against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 4-6 2-6.
In the men’s doubles, Jamie Murray and Dusan Vemic of Serbia, who are seeded No.2, will play Latvian Ernests Gulbis and Russian Igor Kunitsyn in Friday’s quarter-final.
* Photo: Anne Keothavong playing with kids in Memphis (by Chase Gustafson)
Hutchins & Huss off to a winning start
Ross Hutchins and Australian partner Stephen Huss began their doubles campaign at Open 13 in Marseille with a victory on Wednesday.
Hutchins and Huss, who have teamed up regularly since winning an ATP World Tour title together in Beijing last September, defeated Italians Simon Bolelli and Andreas Seppi 6-3 6-4 in just over an hour.
In Thursday’s quarter-final, the No.4 seeds will meet the German pairing of Christopher Kas and Rainer Schuettler. Hutchins and Huss are currently No.42 and No.53 respectively in the doubles world rankings.
Elsewhere, Georgie Stoop has won her opening match at the $25k event in Arizona while Alex Bogdanovic and James Auckland have both bowed out at the €106k Challenger in Belgrade.