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World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 2 Petra Kvitova both earned hard-fought wins at the Sydney International on Tuesday as the battle for the top spot in women's tennis intensifies ahead of the Australian Open.
[/left]Top seed Wozniacki recovered from 0-4 down in the deciding set to beat Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova 7-5 2-6 6-4, while 2011 Wimbledon champion Kvitova scrapped to a 7-5 3-6 6-4 victory over Romania's Alexandra Dulgheru.
[/left]Denmark's Wozniacki has finished the past two seasons top of the world rankings, despite not winning a grand slam title, having first risen to the summit in October 2010.
[/left]But rising Czech star Kvitova can usurp her fellow 21-year-old by winning the Sydney event before the season's first grand slam starts in Melbourne next week. The draw means the top-seeded duo cannot meet until Friday's final.
[/left]"I felt like everything I tried to do wasn't working and I was making a lot of unforced errors," Wozniacki told the WTA Tour's website. "So I said, 'Okay, let's just keep a margin to the lines and give her that extra ball.' It paid off in the end.
[/left]"That I could fight back from that score and win is definitely satisfying, but I'll need to step my game up a little bit in the next round."
[/left][/left]Kvitova dismissed talk of claiming the top ranking for the first time in her career, instead insisting she is taking the tournament one match at a time.
"I'm not really focused on the first spot," she said. "This tournament is very tough and everybody is playing here. It's like the final rounds of a grand slam, so it's not easy to win these matches. So it's only words."
Wozniacki will play Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinals, after the 22-year-old defeated Germany's Andrea Petkovic 7-5 6-4.
Kvitova faces Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, who beat Italy's 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 7-5 6-1.
Third seed Victoria Azarenka defeated Serbia's former world number one Jelena Jankovic 6-4 6-2 to set up a clash with French eighth seed Marion Bartoli -- who eliminated Australia's Jelena Dokic 6-0 6-3.
China's defending champion Li Na came from a set down to win 2-6 6-4 6-1 against South Africa's Chanelle Scheepers.
The 2011 French Open winner, seeded fourth, will next play the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova, who advanced when Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova retired with heat exhaustion.
[/left]In the men's draw, fifth seed Viktor Troicki beat home favorite and two-time grand slam winner Lleyton Hewitt 4-6 6-3 6-2 in the first round.
[/left]The Serbian earned a clash with Russia's Alex Bogomolov Jr., who won 6-4 1-6 6-4 against the Netherlands' Robin Haase.
[/left]Czech eighth seed Radek Stepanek also registered an opening victory, defeating Belgium's Xavier Malisse 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-4.
[/left]In Tasmania, Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer justified her tag as top seed at the Hobart International by destroying Australian wildcard Casey Dellacqua 6-1 6-1 in the second round on Tuesday.
[/left]Former world No. 5 Anna Chakvetadze also went through to the quarterfinals with a 6-3 6-2 win over Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova, while 2011 finalist Bethanie Mattek-Sand of the U.S. was beaten 2-6 6-3 7-5 by Romania's Sorana Cirstea.
[/left]Israeli sixth seed Shahar Peer, the 2010 runner-up, won her first-round match 6-3 6-1 against the Czech Republic's Lucie Hradecka.
