THE $100,000 plus ITF sanctioned Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge for women went a gear higher on the third day at the Metropolitan Resort and Beach last night.

Playing with greater precision than seen on the opening days, four girls, good enough to be in top flight women’s tennis a short time from now, made the quarter-final grades in contrasting styles.

Most impressive into the grove right from the word go in the pre-quarter-finals was Belarusian beauty Olga Barabanchikova who will easily put Anna Kournikova shades lower in terms of game ability and physical looks.

She made short work of Al Habtoor veteran Katalin-Marosi Aracama without losing a game (6-0, 6-0) in her short and sweet 35-minute episode on Court 1.

“I was playing really good today. I want to get back to where I belong. The long layoff due to injury and personal reasons have cost me a lot. I know I have the game and I want to do justice to the early promise shown in my career,” Olga, 433 in the world and a wild card here, said.

Olga who reached glorious heights in the junior Wimbledon some years back, is 22 now, and plans on a comeback in her tennis career.

There was hardly anything right 214 world ranked wild card Katalin could do in the last pre-quarterfinal singles game for the night and knowing the frame of mind that she was in, we did not press her for post match statements.

Giant-killer Galina Fokina (Russia) the 189 listed player in WTA had a 6-4, 6-2 win over Austrian hopeful, 174th world ranked Patricia Wartusch.

“Wartusch was on 60 in the world a couple of years back. I was into time-off recovering from an operation and I have been her coach for the past six months back.

“There are bound to be some ups and downs in a playing career. Patricia is 22 now and still has a future. Further Galina is playing well after upsetting the top seed on Monday,” said Stefan Leiner, Wartucsh’s coach, a former Austrian player in the men’s circuit.

WTA 199 Camille Pin from France booked a last eight slot beating Olga Blahotova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (3), 6-4 where the first set was a real touch and go affair.

Blahotova was a trifle unlucky to lose serve early which Camille relied upon to settle for a two-game margin in the end.

The day’s best fought match was on Court 1 where crowd favourite, the polite and soft spoken Angelique Widjaja fought from nowhere to clinch a 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-1 triumph against the veteran Laurence Andretto from France.

Laurence, with a lot more of firepower in her game especially in her first serve and forehands than in previous years here also had a beautiful sliced backhand.

She had a ding dong battle in the first set before squeezing home 7-6 with an impressive tie-break scoreline of 7-2.

Laurence cruising along fine on the same lines when she led 3-2, 4-2 and held serve to sit pretty at 5-2 in the second set.

Angelique at this stage hampered by indifferent form when it came to her chips at the net and forehands, approached the game with a nothing to lose attitude which paid off.

The wiry Bandung based Wimbledon junior champ held serve to reduce it to 3-5, broke Laurence next for 4-5 and held again to square matters.

In the 11th, Angelique broke through on love game for 6-5 and finally served her way past 0-30 to clinch the set at 7-5 and force the rubber.

The third set was an anti-climax as a visibly tired Laurence began to make mistakes like in the late part of the second set.

“Laurence is a great fighter but she looked tired and could not play like in the beginning. I played with a more relaxed mind but never gave up when down 2-5 in the second after the narrow first set loss. I made her run more with cross court shots but my chips were not working at all today,” said Angelique.