Vekic fights back to beat Witthoeft
Second seed Carina Witthoeft succumbed to a second-round exit thanks to Donna Vekic's superb comeback at the Tashkent Open.
Donna Vekic produced a fine comeback to progress to the quarter-finals of the Tashkent Open on Wednesday with a three-set victory over second seed Carina Witthoeft.
The 19-year-old, who reached the third round of the French Open earlier in the year, displayed great resiliency to win 4-6 6-2 6-2 against a player ranked 79 places above her.
Witthoeft needed only one break to clinch the first set, but Vekic struck in the third game of the second and, after seeing off break points at 3-2 up, capitalised on another shaky service game from Witthoeft to go 5-2 up.
The Croatian held serve to force a decider in which she moved into a 3-0 lead. Witthoeft battled back to 3-2, but Vekic rattled off three straight games to set up a last-eight match with another German in Anna-Lena Friedsam.
Friedsam knocked out sixth seed Margarita Gasparyan 6-3 6-4, and another of her compatriots, top seed Annika Beck, beat Jana Cepelova 6-4 6-4.
Fourth seed Johanna Larsson was a 6-2 6-2 winner over Nigina Abduraimova but fifth seed Katerina Siniakova lost 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to qualifier Kateryna Kozlova.
Elsewhere, Bojana Jovanovski overcame fellow Serbian Aleksandra Krunic 6-4 6-3, Evgeniya Rodina claimed a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) victory over Yaroslava Shvedova and Nao Hibino profited from Aliaksandra Sasnovich's withdrawal.