QUÉBEC CITY, September 15, 2017

The quarterfinals of the National Bank Cup presented by IGA are set. Top seed Lucie Safarova defeated Sofia Kenin from the United States 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday at the Hall of Physical Education and Sports in Québec City.

The World No. 33 from the Czech Republic fired 11 aces, winning 79 per cent of her first service points to advance in 62 minutes.

Next up for Safarova will be Lucie Hradecka, who rallied past Canadian youngster Bianca Andreescu 2-6, 6-2, 7-5. The 32-year-old Prague native capitalized on five of her eight break point chances to prevail after two hours and two minutes.

“The third set was obviously a battle, I tried my best, I had a couple of opportunities at 3-1 and 5-3 serving. It’s a learning process for me and I’m not too disappointed about how I played, I’m just going to move on to the next one,” Andreescu said after the match.

No.7 seed Alison Van Uytvanck from Belgium is back into the quarterfinals in Québec City for the second year in a row after a tight, straight sets win over Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 6-4, 7-6.

“I think it’s a pretty good win, Erakovic was playing really well today,” Van Uytvanck said afterwards. “I played her a couple of weeks ago on grass, but I thought she definitely improved her game a lot, so for me it was tough.

“I was up two breaks in the second set, and she fought really hard to come back and played good tennis. So I’m happy with the win and the way I’m playing.”