New Zealand tennis number one Marina Erakovic will be in top company in the quarter-finals of the WTA Stanford tournament in California.
By knocking out the top seed and world number four Victoria Azarenka Erakovic is into the last eight with the likes of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, who'll meet in a marquee match.
After her first win over a top 10 player Erakovic, who's now ranked 121st in the world, will play the eighth-seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
She says she knew she had to be the aggressor and try to dictate the pace and felt like she was hitting the ball well.
It's her second quarter-final this year, and she's now won 35 of her past 41 matches after missing much of the 2009 season with a hip injury.
Erakovic's WTA ranking rose to 43 in late 2008 before injury forced her back to the lower-level ITF circuit, where she has won a dozen titles.
The 23-year-old says the injury made her realise how much she loves tennis and that's when she committed herself and she feel like she can compete with the best.
Erakovic qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon, won her first-round match there and reached the doubles semi-finals.
She also qualified for the French Open.
