Konta powers through to Monterrey quarterfinals, Svitolina breezes past Govortsova

The second seed required an hour and 47 minutes to defeat Germany's Tatjana Maria 7-6(4) 6-3 in a tightly contested encounter. Maria saved ten break points in the first set before it went to a tiebreak, with Konta eventually prevailing after over an hour.

Konta maintained her agrressive play in the second set, attacking the net at every opportunity. The World No.16 was rewarded with more break points, and converted on her 12th time of asking. With a 5-3 lead, Konta served for the match and ended proceedings on her third match point.

After ending Kim Clijsters's run in the opening round, Konta next faces Russian teenager Anastasia Potapova in the quarterfinals. Potapova rallied from a horrific opening set to defeat Tamara Zidansek 1-6 7-6(3) 6-1. Following impressive showings in St. Petersburg and Acapulco, this will be Potapova's third quarterfinal of the season.

Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands upset tenth-seeded American Lauren Davis 7-5 6-0 to advance to her first quarterfinal of the season. She will face sixth seed Rebecca Peterson, who defeated former top 10 player Kateryna Bondarenko in the previous round.

Top seed Elina Svitolina had little trouble overcoming qualifier Olga Govortsova 6-3 6-4 in just 78 minutes. The World No.7 broke Govortsova four times, after being broken in her opening service game by the 142nd-ranked Belarusian.

Govortsova did manage to prevent the Ukrainian from serving out the match at 5-3, even saving a match point on her serve. However, she was unable to prevent the top seed from closing out the match and securing the final quarterfinal spot.

Svitolina will face in-form Canadian Leylah Fernandez in what should be an exciting affair. The teenager reached the final in Acapulco last week and defeated fifth seed Sloane Stephens in the previous round.

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