WTA roundup: Sara Sorribes Tormo endures marathon in Rabat

No. 3 seed Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain advanced to her first quarterfinal of the year when she defeated Argentina's Nadia Podoroska 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 at the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem on Tuesday in Rabat, Morocco.

In a match that lasted just shy of three hours, Sorribes Tormo broke her opponent's serve eight times in 13 chances. She is the highest seed remaining in the tournament after No. 1 seed Yue Yuan of China and No. 2 seed Anna Blinkova of Russia lost Monday.

Dutch fifth seed Arantxa Rus was less fortunate, as Argentina's Maria Lourdes Carle took her down in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. Yafan Wang topped eighth seed Lin Zhu 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 in an all-Chinese matchup.

No. 4 seed Lucia Bronzetti spent just 52 minutes defeating Morocco's Malak El Allami 6-1, 6-0. Other winners Tuesday included No. 7 seed Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Martina Trevisan of Italy, Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria and Mayar Sherif of Egypt.

Internationaux de Strasbourg

In the only match to be completed Tuesday in rainy France, No. 5 seed Liudmila Samsonova charged back to defeat Canada's Leylah Fernandez 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Samsonova trailed 2-0 in the second set before winning four straight games. After Fernandez tied the set 4-4, Samsonova broke Fernandez's serve for the third of five times and controlled the match the rest of the way.

Three other matches, including No. 3 seed Danielle Collins' next matchup against Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, were postponed until Wednesday.

--Field Level Media