Top seed Elena Dementieva of Russia, fresh from an impressive victory over New Zealand's Marina Erakovic, was taking nothing for granted in her quarterfinal match with Israeli fifth seed Shahar Peer.
"She's always tough," said Dementieva. "We've played a few times now, and on a different surface each time. You never know how it's going to be. Last time was Wimbledon, and this surface is so different. It's the first tournament of the year. My aim will be to keep improving from match to match."
They have played each other five times, Dementieva winning all of these except their first meeting at the 2006 French Open. Twice last year Peer was mown down by the Russian in Grand Slams, 6-2 6-0 at the Australian Open and 6-2 6-1 at Wimbledon.
Eleven titles for the 4th-ranked Dementieva against three for the 39th-ranked Peer makes the Russian a clear favourite.
The low profile Peer said little other than that she was going to focus on her own game.
One of the most intriguing match-ups of the day comes when second seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark meets Elena Vesnina of Russia (pictured), who is debuting at the ASB Classic and a virtual unknown to the Auckland public.
Making the quarterfinals in Hobart and the fourth round in Miami, Vesnina's only other distinguishing WTA Tour events in 2008 were third round losses at Amelia Island and at the Australian Open, but she played doubles for the Russian Federation Cup and Olympic teams, reaching the quarterfinals in Beijing paired with Vera Zvonareva.
Doubles is clearly her forte. She has three WTA titles to her credit with a mixture of higher-profile Russian partners. In Auckland she teamed with top singles seed Elena Dementieva, but her play this week on the singles court has earned some far closer scrutiny than before.
In round one she breezed past a qualifier 1 and 0, then yesterday upped that strong opening tempo to blow away the sixth seed, Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic.
The 22-year-old Vesnina has faced Wozniacki only once, losing 5-7 1-6 on Stockholm's hardcourt in 2007.
Wozniacki for her part looks like she is enjoying the WTA ride at the moment. At 18 she has the tennis world at her feet... fans take to her, the wins keep stacking up and her climb up the rankings looks destined for single figures soon. She is yet to drop a set in Auckland too, this being her first visit here.
Pairs of unseeded players meet in two of the quarters today. In the first, Romanian Edina Gallovits meets Aravane Rezai of France. Gallovits is 24 years old and ranked 75, Rezai is aged 21 and ranked 97. Neither have a WTA title yet, and in their only meeting (Austria on clay) the Romanian won over three sets.
Rezai played Auckland for the first time in 2008, beating a qualifier, two seeds and Erakovic before finishing runner-up to Lindsay Davenport.
It is Gallovit's first visit to Auckland.
The fourth quarterfinal features top British player Anne Keothavong, ranked 60, against gutsy Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita, ranked 83. The (now) 25 year-old Keothavong beat Morita 7-5 6-4 in their only previous meeting, during qualifying at Roland Garros in 2007, but the Japanese girl was only 17 at the time and has climbed over a hundred ranking places since then.
Both have locked up berths in the quarterfinals through fine tennis in the first two rounds, Keothavong without dropping a set.
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