Chinese players Li Na and Zheng Jie reached their first quarterfinals of the year at the new Monterrey Open in Mexico on Wednesday.

Li Na reacts during her match against Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic. [Xinhua]

Both won 6-3, 6-4 on the clay.

Fourth-seeded Zheng beat Melinda Czink of Hungary and unseeded Li topped Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic.

Zheng also downed Czink at the Australian Open, where she reached the fourth round before retiring with a left wrist sprain. But the result propelled her into the top 20, only the second Chinese woman to make the milestone, after Li.

Li, coming back from a nagging right knee injury which forced her to miss the Australian Open and start the season less than a month ago, followed up her knockout of top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland with an easier win over Cetkovska, breaking the Czech three times.

Li will face another Czech in the quarterfinals, Lucie Safarova, who advanced when eighth-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia retired with an inflamed left knee while Safarova was leading 6-4, 4-1. Seventh-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina beat Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine 6-2, 6-4 for her second quarterfinals in three weeks, and faced Zheng next.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily March 6, 2009)