OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Monica Seles continued her comeback from a foot injury with another easy victory Thursday night, beating Sarah Pitkowski of France 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the $180,000 IGA SuperThrift Tennis Classic.
Seles, ranked 14th in the world and seeded second in the tournament, needed just 42 minutes to put away the eighth-seeded Pitkowski.
It was only the second match since late September for Seles, who suffered a stress fracture in her right foot during competition in Japan.
I was just playing so well tonight,'' said Seles, who won her opening match in 55 minutes.Everything was just really going my way. And as soon as I built up that big of a lead, I started playing even better.”
She said a few things could have been better, “but I really felt like I played at a high level, which I know I have to do if I want to get back to winning some big tournaments and grand slams again.”
Seles will meet the winner of Friday’s Amanda Coetzer-Lisa Raymond match in a semifinal Saturday. The third-seeded Coetzer of South Africa had to win two tiebreakers to beat Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4) on Thursday.
I probably didn't hit the ball well, but I competed well,'' said Coetzer, ranked 17th in the world.She played pretty well but I gave her a couple of games in the first set.”