Friday, October 6 2006 16:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Stuttgart (Germany): Russian third seed Elena Dementieva fought through cramp to defeat Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik in a three-hour marathon to become the first player through to the quarter-finals of the 650,000 dollar (511,000 euro) WTA tournament here on Wednesday.

Dementieva, ranked number six in the world, lost the first set 6-4 but battled back to win the second set 7-5 with some thrilling ground strokes.

In a pulsating final set, Dementieva went down with severe cramp while serving for the match at 5-4 and threw her racket on the floor as Srebotnick made it 5-5.

However after an injury time-out for the cramp, Dementieva somehow picked herself up to win 7-5 and reach the last eight where she will face Switzerland's fifth seed Patty Schnyder or Israel's Shahar Peer.

"I had cramp for the first time in my life and I could not believe it," said Dementieva. "It was a great match and I gave everything to win. I have one day off now and that is just what I need," he said.

Daniela Hantuchova, the first Slovak woman to reach the top five in the world rankings back in 2003, booked a mouthwatering second round clash with Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina after defeating Austrian qualifier Sybille Bammer in three sets.

"I have been in bed with a cold for the past few days so I was struggling with breathing in the big rallies," explained Hantuchova.

"That is why it is especially nice to win this match," he said.

The 23-year-old Hantuchova, a semi-finalist here last year, won the first set 6-3 at a canter but made countless unforced errors in second set as Bammer won it 7-5.

But the Slovak took the decisive set and will now play Safina who survived three match points to defeat Italy's Mara Santangelo in a three-set epic on Tuesday.

Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova won the first round battle of the qualifiers defeating Croatia's Karolina Sprem 6-1, 6-4.

Pironkova will face either France's Mary Pierce or Serbia and Montenegro's eighth seed Jelena Jankovic, who play later, in the second round.