Dinara Safina of Russia reacts to a point against Flavia Pennetta of Italy during their match at the U.S. Open tennis tournament at Flushing Meadows in New York, September 3, 2008.

Earlier, Olympic champion Elena Dementieva booked her place in the season-ending WTA Championships by crushing France's Alize Cornet 6-0, 6-3 in her opening match. The world No. 4, who won gold in Beijing last month, took just 69 minutes to reach the last eight of the US$1.34 million Pan Pacific tournament.

Dementieva, the Pan Pacific Open's third seed, became the fifth player to qualify for November's showcase event in Doha, exclusive to the world's top eight.

"It's great to be there months before," said the Russian, winner in Tokyo two years ago. "I remember years before fighting right up to the end to get into the tournament."

Williams, Jankovic, Ivanovic and Russian Dinara Safina have already secured their spots in the US$4.45 million end-of-season shootout. Six of the world's top 10 players are appearing in Tokyo, although No. 1 Williams is not taking part.

In China, top-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia beat China's Xu Yifan 6-1, 7-6 (4) yesterday to move into the quarterfinals of the Guangzhou International.

Zvonareva, a bronze medalist at last month's Olympics, will next face Italy's Karin Knapp, who beat eighth-seeded Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine on Wednesday.

Austria's Tamira Paszek defeated seventh-seeded Pauline Parmentier of France 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Her next opponent will be unseeded American veteran Jill Craybas, who on Wednesday upset sixth-seeded Olga Govortsova of Belarus.

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