Third seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia advanced to the second round of the Australian Open after a long and totally undecided encounter with Austrian prodigy Tamira Paszek.

Except for a few moments in the match when she really shined, Jankovic made lots of double faults and unforced errors, easily lost her service games, nothing went her way, and on top of all that, struggled with the injury she sustained in the Hopman Cup. The 17-year-old Paszek, on the other hand, was strong, her shots were fast and precise, and overall played much better.

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Austrian phenomenon Tamira Paszek defeated second seed Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-1, 6-3, and became the first semifinalist at the 2008 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.

Sixth-seeded Paszek was happy with her on court performance. "I didn't miss many shots," she says, adding that she felt she had her rhythm.

Other quarterfinal matches are Vera Zvonarevia vs. Marina Erakovic (at the moment I’m writing this they’re playing the third set), Katarina Srebotnik vs. Aravane Rezai, and Lindsay Davenport vs. Sara Errani. (source: TVNZ)

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Austrian Tamira Paszek seems to be taking the ASB Classic seriously as she has already arrived in Auckland to start practicing for the New Year's Eve event.

In the past, the earliest that the players have arrived in New Zealand was two weeks before the ASB Classic, so fifth-seeded Paszek is about to break the record by about a week.

While it’s common for players to come to Australia two or three weeks prior to the first two tournaments, New Zealand had to wait a bit longer for the players to arrive. Richard Palmer, director of the ASB Classic, believes that if Paszek makes a good result at the tournament, other players will follow her example and arrive in New Zealand just as early. (source: Newstalk ZB, photo via Linkmania)

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Aaress Lawless from On the Baseline Tennis News did a lot of work to organize the 2008 Players to Watch Series which will comprise of a number of guest posts and exclusive interviews. It will spotlight many familiar stars, as well as the brightest newcomers in women’s tennis during a period of two weeks. I believe that the series will be a valuable collection of articles and I suggest you to check it out.

My guest post will be about Tamira Paszek with a number of facts backing up my opinion that she is a player to watch in 2008. The article will air within the next two weeks and I will let you know when it gets online. Additionally, Aaress managed to obtain an exclusive Q&A interview with Paszek, so my recap of her career will be a nice lead-in to the interview. Cool!

Enjoy the series, it has already started!

UPDATE: I promised that I will inform you when my article about Tamira Paszek gets published, and here it is: Tamira Paszek May Pose Threat to Top Tennis Players in 2008. Hope you'll like it.

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Third seed Marion Bartoli of France defeated Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek 6-2 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals of the Generali Ladies Linz on Thursday. The 2007 Wimbledon finalist seemed completely unaffected by the knee injury that forced her to retire in Zurich last week.

"My knee was not 100 percent but still okay and I was able to play," Bartoli, who lost only one point on serve in the first set, told reporters.

"I feel sometimes a little pain especially when I have to take a hard step on my left foot, so I tried not to hit too hard and just put the ball to the right spot."

All the Linz Open quarterfinalists are known now: Anna Chakvetadze, Patty Schnyder, Marion Bartoli, Julia Vakulenko, Nicole Vaidisova, Dinara Safina, Alona Bondarenko, and Daniela Hantuchova. (photo via Getty Images)

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