Top seed Garbine Muguruza knocked out in Marrakech
Thursday 30 April 2015 18:13, UK
Top seed Garbine Muguruza crashed out of the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem in Marrakech as Kristina Mladenovic beat her in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals.
Muguruza, who won the doubles crown with Romina Oprandi last year, cruised past French Open junior champion Darya Kasatkina without dropping a set on Tuesday but was on the wrong end of a straight-sets scoreline 24 hours later.
Frenchwoman Mladenovic rattled off five aces and despite dropping her serve five times she also broke Muguruza on five occasions to beat the Spanish world number 20 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (8-6).
Mladenovic will face another Spaniard in the next round after Lara Arruabarrena booked her place in the quarter-finals by despatching eighth seed Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 7-5 6-2.
Swiss second seed Timea Bacsinszky set up a quarter-final showdown with seventh seed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova after she beat Germany's Tatjana Maria 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.
Slovakian Schmiedlova, meanwhile, had to fight back from a set down to eventually see off Argentinian qualifier Maria Irigoyen, winning 3-6 6-1 6-3.
Ukrainian fourth seed Elina Svitolina strolled past American Christina McHale 7-5 6-3 to seal a quarter-final encounter with Italian Karin Knapp, who beat sixth seed Roberta Vinci 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 6-2.
Hungary's Timea Babos and Flavia Pennetta will contest the fourth and final quarter-final after beating Brazilian qualifier Teliana Pereira 6-0 6-7 (7-5) 6-4 and Laura Siegemund 4-6 6-1 6-3 respectively.
