By Anil John/Doha

POWERPACKED: World’s No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark returns to Russian Nadia Petrova during their WTA Qatar Ladies Open tennis match
The Qatar Ladies Open is turning out to be graveyard for seeded players. Five of the eight seeds have bitten the dust before the quarter-final stage, and of the three who survive only Caroline Wozniacki seems capable of keeping people interested.
After Agnieszka Radwanska and Victoria Azarenka, the seventh and sixth seeds, were beaten in the first round, organisers had expected normal service to resume, but much to their horror, three more tumbled out of the tournament yesterday to give the last eight stage a distinctly lopsided look.
Italian Francesca Schiavone, Chinese Na Li and Israeli Shahar Peer, seeded third, fourth and eighth respectively all bowed out yesterday to once again underscore the deceptive nature of early-season form rankings.
Schiavone, the French Open champion, was ousted by Chinese qualifier Peng Shuai  7-5, 6-3, while Na fared even badly losing 6-2, 6-1 to Czech Klara Zakopalova. Much worse was the case of the eighth-seeded Peer, who was simply thrashed by Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 6-1, 6-0.
Of course, upsets are often good for sport, but whether that holds true for tennis can be debated. In a tournament like the Qatar Open which is making a comeback to the regular WTA circuit after a two-year break, it was important for the form book to hold true. Unfortunately that is not the case anymore.
True, Wozniacki and Zvonareva can still clash in the final, but if one of them falls either in the quarter-finals today or in the last four, a packed house for the final is far from likely.But Zvonareva was not looking that ahead after her easy victory yesterday.
“No match is easy, even if they look easy from the sidelines,” the Russian told the Gulf Times. “I am not looking at the final yet, I never get ahead of myself. I always try to stay focused and take each day at a time. The final is still a long way off.”
Zvonareva has been a runner-up twice in Doha, at the Qatar Open and the season-ending championships in 2008, and the Russian is hoping to be third time lucky here. “You never know, but as I said I prefer to look at one match at a time,” said the 26-year-old. Earlier, Wozniacki progressed to the last eight with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Nadia Petrova, the 2006 winner to give local organisers something to cheer about. She will next clash with Italian Flavia Pennetta today.
Wozniacki, who won the Dubai Open on Sunday, hardly showed any signs of slowing down as she gave Petrova, without a title since Quebec City in 2008, a through workout.
“It’s great to start off with a win and continue with my good form after Dubai,” the Dane said. “Nadia is a very experienced player who has won before in Qatar, so it was particularly pleasing,” added Wozniacki who had one break in the first set and three in the second.
Schiavone, the world number five, was thoroughly outplayed by the bustling Peng, who scored her second consecutive victory over the Italian, following her win at the 2009 Australian Open.
“Playing against Francesca is always difficult,” said Peng.
“But I was the better player today. She tested me in the first set, but I was more determined,” added Peng, who broke her rival twice in each set and will take on Bartoli next in the third round.
Peng, however, said her win was not the best of her career.
“Sorry to disappoint you but this was not my best win,” said Peng. “I think the best victory so far in my career came against Kim Clijsters in San Diego in 2005.”
Schiavone, who became the first Italian to win the French Open last year, said maybe she should be taking a break from the game.
“I should take some days off, but there is no time... sometimes tennis players can decide, sometimes not,” said the Italian, who also compared playing tennis with journalism.
“Sometimes you write even when you don’t like (it), but you write. It’s the same for us.”
Bartoli, too, was in a zone of her own as she totally dominated Peer to win in 61 minutes. Israeli Peer had won seven of their previous nine encounters beginning 2005, the most recent coming at the French Open last year.
Peer was impressed with Bartoli’s performance, saying if she continued to keep playing like she did she could even become the world number one.
“She gave me no chance,” said Peer. “I have won seven out of nine times against her in the past, but today she was simply too good.
“If she plays all her matches like this she will win 99 per cent of her matches and would even become the world number one.”
“Shahar has dominated me in the past so it was nice to get a win against her,” said Bartoli.