In contrast to another WTA tournament going on in Sydney, Australia, Hobart saw seeds crash out on the second day running when Flavia Pennetta, Zheng Jie and Alona Bondarenko, the remaining three seeds lost out to lower ranked opponents.
Top seed and World no. 13 Italian Flavia Pennetta suffered a 7-5, 6-3 setback to little known Magdalena Rybarikova in what turned out to be the Slovakian's first top 20 win.
Fourth seeded Chinese star Zheng Jie lost to Argentinian Gisela Dulko 6-3, 6-3 in just over an hour. Unseeded Czech Petra Kvitova knocked out seventh seed Alona Bondarenko 6-2, 6-1 in just 51 minutes. The Ukranian could not find her rhythm throughout the match and gave up the match after no resistance.
In a clash between qualifiers, Melinda Czink emerged luckier when Urszula Radwanska retired after trailing 4-2 in the first set, due to back pain.
Other second round winners included Iveta Benesova, virginie Razzano, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Tsevtana Pironkova, all recording easy wins over their respective opponents.
The quarterfinal line up features match ups between Rybarikova and Czink, Benesova and Dulko, Pavlyuchenkova taking on Kvitova and Razzano up against Pironkova.
The Czech pair of Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycov were the first to secure berth in the semifinals with a methodical 6-3, 6-4 win over US-Czech pair of Courtney Nagle and Sarah Borwell.