CINCINNATI, OH, USA - Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova rarely play doubles together, but when they do it's usually bad news for their opponents. The first time they played together was at Cincinnati in 2008 and they captured the title. They also won their next event, Moscow in 2009. They played two events in 2010, losing their opener in Tokyo and bowing out of the Beijing quarterfinals by walkover.
Kirilenko and Petrova got back to their winning ways in their first match of 2011 on Wednesday, rallying from 5-2 down in the second set to top Julia Goerges and Svetlana Kuznetsova, 64 75, and advance to the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Open. The fourth-seeded Russians, now 10-1 all-time together, next take on Natalie Grandin and Vladimira Uhlirova, who upset seventh-seeded Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, 26 76(3) 107.
Also Wednesday, No.1 seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik shook off the snapping of their 14-match winning streak last week in Toronto by cruising past Casey Dellacqua and Alla Kudryavtseva, 62 63. Their quarterfinal opponents will be Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, whom they are 4-0 against.
Second-seeded Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta played Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Alicja Rosolska for the third straight week and beat them for the third straight week, 62 64. Up next for them are Ekaterina Makarova and Zheng Jie.
Playing their first match since their second round loss at Wimbledon, Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova edged Alexa Glatch and Christina McHale, 36 64 105. "Tough start but Yaroslava and I pulled through," King tweeted. "Feels great to be back on the court with her."
King and Shvedova's victory, combined with Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond's 63 76(4) defeat of Eleni Daniilidou and Polona Hercog, set up a quarterfinal that will feature players with a combined 13 doubles majors.
