The aggressive Australian jump started her Stanford campaign on Wednesday by recording a win against Christina McHale in straight sets with a scoreline of 6-1, 7-5. Stosur looked tense towards the end of the match but then came through with the help of a crucial break of serve. McHale had a very weak start to the match as she was smashed away by Stosur who broke her serve more than once in the first set.

She then tried to dig her teeth into the second set but failed to convert it. Stosur was determined to finish the match in straight sets and held her nerve at a crucial situation to finally take the second set 7-5. The No.1 seed, Stosur took a meagre 23 minutes to wrap up the first set with perfect assistance from her deep ground strokes and strategic first serves.

The second set was more challenging as both the players held serve till the tenth game, but then the American qualifier faltered and lost her serve giving Stosur the opportunity to serve for the match. A tense Stosur then found herself trailing by three break points and fought past them to eventually hold serve and win the match. Stosur has now reached the quarterfinals for the fourth straight time. Her best result at Stanford came last year when she reached the semifinals and lost Marion Bartoli.

In another entertaining match of the day, the number three seed Agnieszka Radwanska survived a lethal qualifier Olga Savchuk in a fluctuating match which ended in two sets, 7-6(4), 6-2. Radwanska failed to capitalise on her lead on two occasions which were at 3-1 and 5-3. She then fought back in the tiebreak to win in 7-4 and went on further to breeze past the second set in style.

An analytical Radwanska said, "In the beginning I wasn't playing very well, but once I got to the second set I started playing much better. Playing the qualifying can help someone get used to the courts more, but it can go the other way too, because they'll be more tired from playing more matches. I'm happy to win today."