Second seed Elena Dementieva and third seed Jelena Jankovic advanced to the quarterfinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.

Dementieva played Agnes Szavay in the second round and despite being 4-1 behind in the first set, the Russian battled back to win the set in the tiebreak. Dementieva then cruised through the second set, but needed five match points to seal victory.

"I am still finding my feet on clay court. It is my first tournament of the year (on clay) and my footwork needs to improve," said Dementieva, who will next face Marion Bartoli, the winner over Caroline Wozniacki in the second round.

Defending champion Jelena Jankovic overcame Germany’s promising player Sabine Lisicki, who won Family Circle Cup this month, and beat 20th-ranked Patty Schnyder in the previous round in Stuttgart. The world No.42 Lisicki took Jankovic to three sets, but the Serb won 7-5 5-7 6-3 after two hours and 13 minutes of play.

Jankovic will encounter Flavia Pennetta or sixth seed Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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Fourth seed Victoria Azarenka was upset 6-4 6-3 in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix by claycourt specialist Gisela Dulko.

The world number eight Azarenka came into the Stuttgart event off the back of three tournament wins this season: Brisbane, Memphis and Miami.

Defending champion Jelena Jankovic lost just two games to Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova to reach the second round. She will next face Sabine Lisicki following her 6-4 6-3 win over Patty Schnyder.

In other first-round matches fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova had a hard task against German qualifier Andrea Petkovic, winning 6-4 5-7 6-1. Nadia Petrova also needed three sets to beat Zheng Jie 6-4 5-7 6-4, while Daniela Hantuchova defeated Alize Cornet 6-3 6-1. Also, Flavia Pennetta advanced with a 6-2 6-0 victory over Anna Chakvetadze. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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Dinara Safina won her first match as world number one by defeating Sara Errani 6-0 6-1 to reach the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

Safina, who celebrated her 23rd birthday in Stuttgart on Monday, defeated the 37th ranked Errani in just 51 minutes.

Meanwhile, Jelena Jankovic, whose experiments with fitness regime ruined her game, decided to keep her expectations low: "I won't be thinking about defending the title here, it's more important for me to just get back to playing good tennis."

It’s bizarre and still painful that in Jankovic’s case it would’ve been better if she hadn’t worked at all, than those overly difficult trainings in the wrong direction. However, JJ learned her lesson: "You listen to your team and you think it will bring results. But my body just did not accept it [...] I am not doing any more experiments."

Great news is that the fourth-ranked Serb feels that her game is recovering: "I feel I am coming back into form."

World No.17 Dominika Cibulkova is awaiting Jelena Jankovic in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. (sources: BBC, Reuters; photo: safina-dinara.com)

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Maria Sharapova is about to skip two more tournaments, failing to recover from the infamous shoulder injury.

The WTA said in a statement that the Russian has pulled out from next month’s clay-court tournaments Internazionali BNL d’Italia and Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.

Sharapova hasn’t played a singles match since last August, while she made a brief return to competitive tennis at Indian Wells last month, playing doubles.

I have to say I kind of expected it. All her statements about the comeback have been somewhat vague. (source: Reuters, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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Enjoy natural Ana Ivanovic in the latest set of photos for adidas’ "Me, Myself" campaign.

Ana looks best in sports clothes, with everyday hairdo and makeup. Read more »

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