Swiss Timea Bacsinszky survived a bad start against qualifier Ekaterina Dzehlevich to register a hard fought 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win and enter the quarterfinals of the Nurnberger Bad Gastein Ladies being played in Bad Gastein, Austria.

"The way it started, I was already thinking about going home," said Bacsinszky. "It's tough to play at this altitude. But I started to move forward more and be more aggressive, and I think I got the mental part right. I'm really happy with the win."

In another match, eighth seed Anastasija Sevastova advanced when her opponent Simona Halep retired while on the verge of losing due to an injury. Sevastova was leading the match 5-7, 6-1, 5-0 when Halep decided to throw the towels.

"I had chances at 5-4 in the first set but I became too passive and stopped moving so well," said Sevastova. "In the second and third sets I was more aggressive and that was better.

"I also knew that she was a bit injured, and that's not so easy to play against," Sevastova assessed. "I just had to focus on my game, it worked well in the end."

In the only other matches played during the day, unseeded Anastasia Pivovarova and Sandra Zahlavova recorded contrasting wins over their respective opponents to move ahead in the draw.