Stosur battles into Eastbourne quarter-finals

French Open finalist Samantha Stosur reached the quarter-finals of the Eastbourne International Wednesday after a comeback win over Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

The third seed from Australia went down a break to the Slovak who quickly won the first set at Devonshire Park, with Stosur forced to battle to secure her place in the last eight at the last tune-up event prior to Wimbledon.

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus ended the dream run of Florida-trained British teenager Heather Watson with a 6-1, 6-1 schooling of the 18-year-old.

Stosur, still adjusting her game from clay to grass this week, came through with 13 aces to overcome Hantuchova, whom she has now beaten in their last four meetings following a loss in 2003.

Stosur has reached the quarters or better at her last six events and will be aiming Thursday to repeat her 2008 semi-final showing on the English south coast.

The seventh-ranked Stosur saved ten of the 13 break points she faced off the Hantuchova racket while breaking her opponent four times for her 34^th win of the season.

Former world number one Kim Clijsters, seeded fifth, was playing for the last eight with the Belgian taking on Czech left-hander Lucie Safarova; French eight seed Marion Bartoli was playing Hungarian Agnese Szavay.

On the men’s ATP side, French seeds doubled up for second-round wins, with number four Julien Benneteau putting out Israeli Dudi Sela 7-6 (10/8), 7-5 and eighth seed Michael Llodra struggling past countryman Stephane Robert 6-1, 6-7 (2/7), 6-4.