Bartoli finds her feet on grass
Grass fan Marion Bartoli reached the quarterfinals in her Eastbourne title defence on Wednesday as she defeated Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-2, 6-2.
The French fourth seed is the highest-ranked survivor in a field which lost the top three women's seeds on Tuesday along with men's No 1 Richard Gasquet.
The 2007 Wimbledon finalist Bartoli makes no secret of her love for grass as she competes in the pre-Wimbledon tournament for the ninth time in succession.
"I made it easy on myself, I played extremely well," said ninth-ranked Bartoli.
"I was feeling my shots very well from the baseline and hitting the ball very hard."
The holder called her win in 58 minutes one of her best performances on the surface this season as Monday's start of Wimbledon ticks closer.
"This was probably one of the best matches I've played on grass overall. I played some great ones last year, think this was at the same level. Hopefully I will be able to keep it this way."
Bartoli broke Wozniak, a 2009 quarterfinalist, five times. She next plays for the semifinals against Czech seventh seed Lucie Safarova, who followed the winning template and beating the first of the Brits as she put out teenaged Heather Watson 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.
Local Laura Robson was next to fall, going out to Russian Ekaterina Makarova, Russia, def Laura Robson, Britain, 6-4, 7-5
German fifth seed Angelique Kerber earned a last-eight spot through a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of South African Chanelle Scheepers 6-3, 6-2.
There was a win for Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova over American Christina McHale, a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 victory requiring two and three-quarter hours.
In men's play, third seed Andreas Seppi reached the quarterfinals as he defeated Argentine Carlos Berlocq 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.
