MONTERREY, Mexico (AP): Second-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia defeated America's Melanie Oudin 6-2, 7-6 (6) on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Monterrey Open hard-court tournament.

No. 8 Polona Hercog of Slovenia also reached the final eight, defeating Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-2. Sixth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy was knocked out in the second round by Greta Arn of Hungary 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

In a late match, top-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia faced Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain in a first-round match, while No. 7-seeded Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic played Gisela Dulko of Argentina in the second-round match.

KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) skipper S. Selvarajoo has been told to keep his cool and to provide the support and passes to his team-mates to get the goals in the Malaysia Hockey League (MHL) quarter-final tie against Yayasan Negri Sembilan (YNS).

Selvarajoo has the tendency to lose his head at crucial moments and this has resulted in a negative impact on the team.

Coach Darren Smith said yesterday that he has had a lot of conversations on this with Selvarajoo and hoped that the player would listen and follow orders.

"Selvarajoo is a very talented player and a good passer of the ball," said the New Zealander yesterday.

"He has the ability to make things happen with the ball and I am sure he will spearhead our challenge in the knockout stage."

UniKL go into the first-leg quarter-final match at the Tun Razak Stadium here tomorrow having beaten YNS twice in the Premier Division league (2-1 and 3-2). But Darren warned that the results were not a true reflection of YNS' strength.

"They were not at full strength in both the matches. In the first match, YNS did not have several of their foreign players. In the second, all their Pakistani players were not in the line- up," said Smith.

"The past results don't count. We expect them to be better prepared and I am sure they will want to prove a point as well."

Selvarajoo, who left Tenaga Nasional to join UniKL this year, said that he was ready to do his part and he felt that the young players in the team were set to make their marks as well.

"We have managed to combine well and the players are getting used to each other's game," he said.

"It will be a tough match and basically the team who take their chances well will come out winners. We are happy to have got into the last eight and hope to advance a little further."

The return of Kiwi defender and penalty corner flicker Richard Patherick has also boosted the confidence of the UniKL team.

Patherick missed a few matches at the tail end of the league as he had to return home for national duty. He is the team's highest scorer with eight goals. "He is back and we can look ahead with confidence," said Smith.

"His penalty corner prowess will be handy. We have not scored as many goals as we wanted to in the league. We hope to do better in the knockout stage."

Besides Patherick, the other foreign players in the UniKL ranks are Germans Kevin Lim, Philipp Stahr, Clemen Srahr and goalkeeper Stephen Graham.