Unseeded Russian Elena Vesnina took a step forward in Istanbul as she beat Stefanie Voegele in the pre-quarters. Vesnina entered the Istanbul Cup after experiencing an excruciating six match loss and recorded a win in two well fought sets 6-3, 6-2. The Swiss struggled initially in the match and lost the first set as she was broken at a crucial stage of the set.

Vesnina capitalized on the weak and ill-paced second serve of Voegele to win the break of serves. She took almost 73%points on her opponent's second serve. Voegele concentrated more on her aggressive strokes to get the breaks back but failed to do so as Vesnina refused to surrender. The Swiss then lost steam in the second set as she ended up losing the set 2-6.

In other matches of the day, former champion Vera Dushevina had a very tough encounter with Anastasija Sevastova as she managed to survive the three set thriller. Dushevina recorded a win with a scoreline of 6-3, 6-7(8), 6-2. Sevastova used her forehands efficiently to hold serve and push the second set to tiebreaker and went on to clinch it 10-8. Dushevina then quickly jumped back on the saddle, came up with wonderful stroke play and raced away with the third set 6-2 to secure her place in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Wimbledon Semifinalist Tsvetana Pironkova lost to Anastasia Rodionova in another entertaining match.

Andrea Petkovic prevailed in the pre-quarters as she defeated Ekaterina Makarova in three sets, 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-2. The marathon match lasted for almost three hours. Petkovic was quoted as saying, "It was a very tough match. We did not just play long, but also the points were very long, so I'm happy to be free tomorrow. I can have a massage, maybe hit for half an hour or so and just recover for my match on Friday."

Francesca Schiavone will face Elena Baltacha and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will play Magdalena Rybarikova in matches to come.