Sania battles her way into last eight

Sania Mirza [ Images ] pulled off her second upset in as many days when she beat No 5 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenko of Russia [ Images ] 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-2 to advance to the quarter-finals in the AEGON Classic in Birmingham on Thursday.

The Indian ace continued from where she left after beating British No 1 and 11th seed Anne Keothavong on Wednesday to win a see-saw battle and set up a meeting with Hungarian 16th seed Melinda Czink.

Czink, ranked No 62, upset third seed Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada [ Images ] 6-7 (7), 7-5, 7-5 in another close match.

Also advancing to the quarter-finals was favourite Russia's Maria Sharapova [ Images ], who beat No 7 seed Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 6-3.

She will next play Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium for a place in the semi-finals.