Fourth seed and 1999 champion Venus Williams survived a possible knock out at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia after registering a hard-fought 6-0, 6-7(8), 6-4 victory over Russain Anna Chakvetadze in a two hour 21 minute thriller.

Top seed and current world number one Dinara Safina also struggled before dispatching the challenge of her Chinese opponent, Jie Zheng, winning the come-from-behind battle 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(3) after two hours and 31 minutes of hard-hitting play.

"I'm happy I was still able to change the match. From 5-2 down I started to play a little bit better," Safina said. "But then I just became too passive again. I'm frustrated I wasn't playing my game at all. I know I can play better, though."

Two time defending champion Jelena Jankovic reached the quarterfinals of the tournament when her opponent retired due to viral illness, while trailing 1-6, 0-1.



And in the biggest upset of the day, Agnieszka Radwanska took out fifth seed and Roland Garros champion Ana Ivanovic 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in a match that witnessed the Polish Star bounce back from a 4-0 final deficit to win six games in a row and clinch the victory after one hour and 42 minutes of hard hitting play.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, Victoria Azarenka, Kaia Kanepi and Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez who knocked out eighth seed Nadia Petrova, completed the quarterfinal line-up.