Russia’s Maria Kirilenko reached her first quarter-final of the year yesterday when she came from behind to beat Czech third seed Klara Koukalova at the WTA Korea Open.
The former world number 10, who has fallen out of the top 100 this year because of a knee injury, dropped the first set 6-7 (4/7) but she bounced back in style.
She won the second set 6-4 before an emphatic 6-0 victory in the third sealed her first last-eight appearance of the season as her comeback gains momentum.
“To be honest, because I had an injury for a while, my ranking went down,” said Kirilenko, who was out of action for the first three months of this year.
“However it’s not a problem for me. I already know if I start playing well again, my ranking will be going up again,” she added.
“It was obviously disappointing to be injured, and I really missed playing, but I had some rest and tried to enjoy my time away. Now I’m really practising and trying hard to get back in my best shape.”
The Russian will play sixth seed Kaia Kanepi, who also rallied to defeat Kristyna Pliskova 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, for a place in the semi-finals.
Thursday’s other winners were fourth seed Magdalena Rybarikova, who beat Yanina Wickmayer 6-2, 6-2, and Nicole Gibbs who came from a set down to beat Danka Kovinic 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).