Athens hard courts kept rewarding the favourites in the round of 16, with one notable exception from earlier in the week finally closed out. Qinwen Zheng advanced 6-4, 6-1, and fourth seed Maria Sakkari was even more ruthless in a 6-1, 6-2 win that books her place in the last eight. Fifth seed Sara Bejlek also moved through cleanly, dismissing Lilli Tagger 6-2, 6-2.
The match that carried the most narrative weight belonged to Alycia Parks. After Mai Hontama's first-round upset of Magda Linette, Parks restored order the hard way, recovering from a first-set tiebreak loss to win 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-5. That result sets up a quarter-final between Parks and Sakkari, one of the first locked last-eight ties of the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Athens Open.
Top of the draw is still unfinished. Clara Tauson faces Miriana Tona, Barbora Krejcikova opens against Carole Monnet, Tereza Valentova meets Aliaksandra Sasnovich, and Alina Korneeva takes on Ann Li. Those four second-round ties will decide who joins Bejlek and Zheng in the quarters, and whether Athens stays seed-heavy or starts springing more surprises.
TennisDraw users can mark Zheng, Sakkari, Bejlek, and Parks through, circle the Parks-Sakkari quarter as an early highlight, and hold the rest of the Athens bracket until Tauson, Krejcikova, and Li get their matches on the board.
