PALERMO, Italy - Showing she still has what it takes to hang with the rising talents on tour, Jill Craybas - who turned 36 years young 10 days ago - upset No.4 seed Tsvetana Pironkova in the second round on Wednesday.

Things weren't looking great for Craybas in the first half of the year, her best result being a third round showing at Indian Wells; but last week she made her first quarterfinal of the season in Bastad, and now she has done it again.

Against Pironkova, who was fresh off of her breakthrough first Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon, Craybas lost the first set handily before getting down to business, setting the tone with a break in the first game of the second set and racing out to a 4-1 lead in the third. She won in three, 26 62 62.

Next for Craybas is No.8 seed Julia Goerges, who seemed out of sorts early in her match against qualifier Corinna Dentoni, falling behind 4-1 in the first set; but it didn't take long for her to snap back into it and she won, 64 63.

Click here to see photos from Palermo from last year!

No.1 seed Flavia Pennetta won her seventh match in a row in Palermo later in the day, crushing Renata Voracova, 60 63. It looked even more crushing as Pennetta raced out to a 60 50 lead, but the defending champion lost her serve at love at that point, the first of three games in a row that went to Voracova; Pennetta closed it out in the next game to move into the quarterfinals.

Next up for Pennetta is qualifier Nuria Llagostera Vives, who won a marathon 67-minute first set against No.9-seeded Alberta Brianti then won, 76(6) 62.

The other four second round matches take place Thursday. No.2 seed Aravane Rezai is among those gunning for the final eight.