Agnieszka Radwanska beat dangerous veteran Greta Arn to reach the quarterfinal of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix to win her WTA-leading 27th match of the year.
Ranked in the Top 40 as recently as last year, Arn showed some fight as she broke serve once per set. That however, was not enough as the Radwanska broke twice per set to clinch a 6-3,6-4 victory.
"It was my first match of the year on clay and Greta already had a couple matches here, and that's always hard," Radwanska said. "It's especially hard on clay - but it was a good match, and I'm happy how I played today."
Radwanska insisted that there is a difference between indoor clay courts and out door clay courts. "They're pretty different," she said. "Indoor clay really feels much faster than outdoor clay. It's very slippery indoors, and it doesn't even feel like there's that much clay on it - it feels more like a hardcourt with some clay on top of it."
Tied with 26 wins each, Radwanska gained one on World No.1 Victoria Azarenka as the Belarusian plays her first match in Stuttgart on Thursday.
"I'm just very happy with my season so far, since the beginning of the year. I've played good matches with the top players and I really cannot complain! I hope I can keep winning more matches now that we're in the clay season."
Maria Sharapova was also in action facing another qualifier, France's Alizé Cornet. The match however, was cut short as the French miss pulled out with a shoulder injury aggravation. Sharapova was leading 6-3, 1-0 at the time.
"You never want matches to end that way," Sharapova said. "But my opponent today had already played four matches to get here and was obviously feeling it and having a bit of a problem with the shoulder. At this stage, a few weeks before Roland Garros in her home country, it's important for her to get well."
This was Sharapova's first match in Germany since 2005. It was also her first match at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
"The good thing about playing indoors is you know what conditions you're going to face, with no wind or different weather conditions," Sharapova said. "You know what you're going to get during the match, which is nice to play in."