Italy’s Flavia Pennetta deprived the Hobart International WTA tennis tournament of another seeded player when she beat Sania Mirza 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in Wednesday’s quarter finals.

Sixth-seeded Mirza was one of only two seeds remaining in the main draw at the start of the tournament’s third day but, by the end, No 2 Vera Zvonareva was left alone among seeded players.

Pennetta converted five of eight break point chances and survived a mid-match slump on her way to a gritty win. “It was not a very good match for people to watch,” Pennetta said. “There were a lot of mistakes from both players.”

Zvonareva beat Russian compatriot Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-3, keeping up the strong form she has shown throughout the tournament.

Zvonareva has a semi-final against Ashley Harkleroad, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Edina Gallovits of Romania in a clash of qualifiers.

Harkleroad let two match points slip before clinching a win over Gallovits which propelled her into her third WTA semi-final.

Pennetta’s semi-final opponent will be Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, who beat Australian wildcard entry Casey Dellacqua 6-4, 7-5.

Meanwhile, doubles ace Mahesh Bhupathi also crashed out of the $4,65,000 Medibank International after going down in straight sets in the first round in Sydney. Bhupathi, partnering Mark Knowles of Bahamas, lost 4-6, 4-6 to the Czech pair of Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek.

Nalbandian ill

•Melbourne: A frustrated David Nalbandian is fighting to be fit for next week’s Australian Open after pulling out of the warm-up event at Kooyong because of a back injury.

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