Diyas into Malaysian quarters

Kuala Lumpur - Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan has reached her first WTA quarter-finals in two years by beating Italian qualifier Giulia Gatto-Monticone 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the Malaysian Open on Wednesday.

No. 6-seeded Diyas broke the Italian's serve five times and saved four breakpoints to qualify for her first quarterfinals since 2012 in Taiwan.

Also through to the last eight were No. 4 Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria, and Magda Linette of Poland.

Top-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, ranked 10th, defeated Turkish qualifier Pemra Ozgen 6-1, 6-3 to open her tournament account, and will face Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan in the second round on Thursday, with Diyas waiting in the quarter-finals.

Results from the WTA Malaysian Open on Wednesday (x denotes seeding):

First round:
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x1) bt Pemra zgen (TUR) 6-1, 6-3

Second round:
Zarina Diyas (KAZ x6) bt Giulia Gatto-Monticone (ITA) 6-1, 6-4
Magda Linette (POL) bt Lyudmyla Kichenok (UKR) 6-1, 6-2
Patricia Mayr-Achleitner (AUT x4) bt Danka Kovinic (MNE) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1