WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina — Defending champion John Isner overcame two rain delays to advance in straight sets, while Andy Roddick was eliminated from the Winston-Salem Open Wednesday. The third-seeded Isner, ranked 10th in the world, needed only 71 minutes to beat 13th-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-4, 6-3 in the third round at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex. The fifth-seeded Roddick, a former world No. 1 now ranked 21st, fell to 81st-ranked Steve Darcis of Belgium 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3), in the final hard-court tournament before the US Open next week in New York. Top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France also advanced to the quarterfinals along with second-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, fourth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine, sixth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain, seventh-seeded Sam Querrey and Belgium's David Goffin. Tsonga defeated Sergiy Stakhowsky of the Ukraine 7-6 (7-1), 6-4; Berdych downed Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-2; Dolgopolov beat No. 14 David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-3, 6-4; Granollers rallied to beat Latvia's Ernests Gulbis 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Querrey edged ninth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-4; and Goffin downed Poland's Lukasz Kubot 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5). Jankovic advances In Texas, Serbia's Jelena Jankovic breezed past Romania's Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-1 in just over an hour to reach the semifinals of the WTA Tour's Texas Open Wednesday. The second-seeded Jankovic dominated Cirstea by winning 79 percent of her first-serve points to book a spot in the next round against qualifier Casey Dellacqua of Australia. Dellacqua also won her match in straight sets, beating Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak 6-4, 6-4. In other action, Italy's Roberta Vinci, the third seed, eliminated Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 to reach the semi-finals. Vinci next faces Bojana Jovanovski who was leading 6-4, 1-0 when China's Peng Shuai retired from their match early in the second set. Kvitova, Wozniacki advance In Connecticut, second-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic moved into the quarterfinals of the New Haven Open with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over America's Nicole Gibbs. Caroline Wozniacki remains undefeated in New Haven after beating Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the second round. Wednesday's victory was her 19th here without a loss. Kvitova will play one of her best friends, Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals. Safarova beat Jie Zheng of China 6-4, 6-0. Wozniacki will play Dominika Cibulkova in the quarterfinals. The 5-foot-3 Slovakia beat Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-4, 6-1. — Agencies
