Friday 20 February 2015 15:52, UK
Second-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania reached the quarterfinals of the Rio Open on Wednesday, defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States 6-2 6-4.
Several other seeded players also advanced to the last eight at the WTA-ATP event, South America's biggest clay-court tournament.
No 5 seed Johanna Larsson of Sweden defeated local favourite Gabriela Ce 7-6, 6-4, Germany's Dinah Pfizenmaier beat No 4 Madison Brengle 7-5 0-6 7-5 and Julia Glushko of Israel defeated Grace Min of the United States 6-3 6-1.
In first round matches, No 6 seed Anna Schmiedlova beat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-3 6-0 and Polona Hercog defeated An-Sophie Mestach 6-3 6-4.
On the men's side, Austria's Andreas Haider-Maurer defeated third seed Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-3 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.
Unseeded Juan Monaco of Argentina also made the last eight, beating Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-1 7-6.
No. 2 David Ferrer was leading 7-6 2-0 when Thiemo De Bakker retired from their second-round match, while Joao Souza beat Blaz Rola 6-4 6-7 6-4.
Top-seeded Rafael Nadal faces Pablo Carreno Busta on Thursday.
