BIRMINGHAM, UK - It was a busy day in Birmingham on Thursday, as 12 rain delayed second round matches and all eight third round matches were played at the AEGON Classic, the first grass court tournament of the 2009 season.

While the second round went almost totally to form, there were several upsets in the third round, most notably the losses of Zheng Jie and Aleksandra Wozniak in closely-contested matches. Zheng, the No.1 seed, was ousted by No.13 seed Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, 76(10) 64, despite having four set points in the first set; Wozniak, the No.3 seed, lost to No.16 seed Melinda Czink of Hungary, 67(7) 75 75, despite having match point in the second set.

Other upsets on Thursday saw Sania Mirza beating No.5 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in three sets, 76(3) 36 62; Maria Sharapova defeating No.7 seed Francesca Schiavone handily, 61 63; and Yanina Wickmayer beating No.14 seed Roberta Vinci in straight sets, 61 64. Other third round matches saw No.4 seed Li Na beat No.15 seed Aravane Rezai in a tight two-setter, 75 64; Urszula Radwanska edge Julia Goerges in similar fashion, 76(3) 63; and Stefanie Voegele taking British wildcard Naomi Cavaday out, 64 62.

Zheng, Li, Pavlyuchenkova, Schiavone, Rybarikova, Vinci, Rezai, Czink, Goerges, Wickmayer, Sharapova and Radwanska all won second round matches earlier in the day. Some were able to double up their wins later on.

"I did the right things today. I moved in when I had to. A pretty good day," said Sharapova, who completed a rain-delayed win over Alexa Glatch earlier in the day before her win over Schiavone. "I just want to keep taking it a day at a time. This injury has taught me you never know what's going to happen the next day. On grass, everything goes so quickly. You just try to take care of business."

In the quarterfinals on Friday, Li plays Voegele, Rybarikova plays Radwanska, Czink plays Mirza and Sharapova plays Wickmayer, who reached her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final at this very event last year.