Wimbledon champion Venus Williams said she is relishing her first meeting with world number three Dinara Safina in the quarterfinals of Stuttgart's WTA event.

The American needed a little over an hour of Thursday's second-round match to hit an impressive 12 aces as she over-powered Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4, 6-2 to set up Friday's last-eight clash with French Open runner-up Safina.

The first set was fairly close as Williams had her service broken and had to break back before sealing the opener 6-4, but the second was one-way traffic as Williams blasted eight aces, while Bondarenko replied with four double faults.

"The first set was tough, she broke me, so I had to break back and work hard," admitted Williams.

"It was a good, hard game, but I felt comfortable on court and I am looking forward to the quarterfinal."

This will be the first time Venus and Safina have met on court, but the American said she played close attention to her future opponent's game when the Russian lost the US Open semifinal to sister Serena last month.

"I have never played her before, but I have seen her play a lot and I am sure she will have seen me play plenty too," said Williams.

"I will have to play the same kind of game Serena played in the Open."

World number two Jelena Jankovic brushed off her jet-lag after arriving in Stuttgart on Monday evening from winning last week's China Open in Beijing to ease her way past Alona Bondarenko 6-2, 6-0 in the second round.

"I am still waking up at 5am and staring at the ceiling, willing myself back to sleep," admitted the Serbian star.

"I was the first at breakfast this morning and went back again later for a second helping.

"I am eating a lot to get over the jet lag because I am awake for so much of the day."

In Friday's quarterfinal, Jankovic faces Russia's Vera Zvonareva who dominated France's Marion Bartoli in the second round for a 6-2, 6-0 victory.

"I played her in China last week and it was a hard game, I am going to have to work very, very hard," admitted Jankovic.

Earlier in the day, Safina had to work for her 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) second round win over Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova.

Having needed just 21 minutes to take the first set 6-1, Safina was made to work hard in the second as the 21-year-old, 49 places below her in the WTA rankings, took the set to a tie-break with a clever selection of shots.

Pironkova was regularly hitting her serves over 190km/h and smashed four aces in the second set, but Safina put her under pressure in the tie break and the Bulgarian's inexperience played into her opponents' hands.

"She's a good player, but I had plenty of opportunities to win the match," said Safina, who won the silver medal at the Beijing Olympic Games.

"I became a little bit slow in the second after I dominated the first.

"I lost my concentration, but it was good to have a hard second set - it will help me for later in the week."

And 2006 winner Nadia Petrova is safely in the quarterfinals after her 6-4, 6-1 win over Switzerland's Patty Schnyder.

Petrova will play China's Li Na, who beat world number one Serena Williams on Wednesday, in the quarterfinals.

AFP

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