Kournikova crumbles again

Pisnik will next meet either Bulgarian third seed Maggie Maleeva or Sweden’s Asa Svensson for a place in the semi-finals.

Fourth seed Iva Majoli won an all-Croatian battle against Jelena Kostanic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 to reach the quarter-finals, but second seed Anne Kremer crashed out.

The Luxembourg player was out-punched on the slow, red clay by Argentine Mariana Diaz-Oliva 6-2, 7-5.

Majoli eventually prevailed against her younger compatriot after more than two hours of cat-and-mouse play.

Haas beats Pavel

Munich: German No.2 Tommy Haas advanced to the last eight of the Munich Open on Thursday, beating Romania’s Andrei Pavel 5-7, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2. Haas meets Russian Mikhail Youzhny who edged out Germany’s Oliver Gross 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2). Meanwhile, Moroccan sixth-seed Younes El Aynaoui advanced with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic. He will play France’s Julien Boutter who overcame fourth-seeded Czech Jiri Novak 6-2, 7-5.

Haas lost in his last two encounters with Pavel and another defeat looked on the cards after the Romanian, backhand impressive throughout, broke serve to move 6-5 ahead and then take the first set in the next game.

Kuerten back in form

Palma De Mallorca: Top seed Gustavo Kuerten continued his impressive return to action by battling to a three set win over Sweden’s Magnus Norman to earn a quarter-final place in the Mallorca Open on Thursday.

The Brazilian, who defeated Norman in the final at Roland Garros to take his third French Open title in 2000, now plays last week’s Barcelona Open champion Gaston Gaudio in the last eight. Kuerten dropped just one game to take the opening set 6-1 and although Norman fought back to take the second 7-5, Kuerten went on to claim the deciding third set 6-3.

Argentine Gaudio, seeded eight in Mallorca, continued hisfine form with a confident 6-1 6-3 win over Cedric Pioline of France.