WTA: Jankovic sneaks into QFs in rainy Birmingham

Birmingham, England (Sports Network) - French Open semifinalist Jelena Jankovic was among Friday's third-round winners on another rainy day at the $200,000 DFS Classic. Rain completely wiped out all eight third-round matches here on Thursday, and the wet stuff postponed a pair of third-rounders and the quarterfinals on Friday.
Jankovic landed in the quarters by overcoming 16th-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. The surging Serb will next face sixth-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko in the round of eight.
Another quarterfinal will pit fourth-seeded Chinese Na Li against eighth- seeded Italian Mara Santangelo, as Li handled Ukrainian qualifier Yuliana Fedak 6-4, 6-4, while Santangelo advanced, despite trailing 1-3 in the first set, when ninth-seeded Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko retired from their bout because of a left ankle sprain at Edgbaston Priory Club.
For the second day in a row, matches between top-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova and Austrian Tamira Paszek and third-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova and 15th-seeded Greek Eleni Daniilidou were washed out. The eventual winners will have to play their third-round and quarterfinal matches here on Saturday. The U.S. Open champion and Aussie Open runner-up Sharapova, like Jankovic, was a semifinal loser at Roland Garros last week.
Sharapova was the back-to-back Birmingham titlist in 2004 and 2005.
In other action on Friday, fifth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France drilled German Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-0, the aforementioned Bondarenko blitzed American Vania King 6-1, 6-3 and Russian Elena Likhovtseva leveled Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita 6-2, 6-0.
Birmingham serves as a tune-up for Wimbledon, which will commence June 25 at the All England Club.