Warsaw: Top-five player Elena Dementieva will head to the French Open scrambling for confidence after a third straight early round loss on European clay at the Warsaw Open on Wednesday.
Dementieva, a former French Open finalist, lost her first matchup with Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in just under three hours.
The Russian received a bye into the second round in Warsaw, and has only two wins from three tournaments in her buildup to the year's second Grand Slam event, starting on Sunday.
Pironkova, ranked 100, will play her first quarterfinals since October against Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania who defeated Timea Bacsinsky of Switzerland 6-2, 6-4.
In other second-round games, third-seeded Li Na of China beat wild card Katarzyna Piter of Poland 6-0, 6-3, and Zheng Jie of China beat Tathiana Garbin of Italy 6-1, 6-1 to meet top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the quarterfinals.
Sixth-seeded Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine won over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4, while Greta Arn of Hungary defeated Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-4. The two winners will meet in the quarterfinals.
Sara Errani of Italy defeated Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 7-6 (7), 6-3 and will meet Li.
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