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The abdominal and neck injuries that scuppered Marina Erakovic's hopes of upsetting world No 4 Elena Dementieva aren't expected to disrupt the Kiwi No 1's build-up for the Australian Open.
While the injuries affected her serve yesterday, neutralising her biggest weapon, she described them as not major and
expected them to clear in time for her next assignment in Hobart.
"When I woke up [yesterday] morning I couldn't turn my neck to the left," she said after a comprehensive 6-2, 6-3 defeat by the tournament's top seed.
The abdominal strain affected her ball toss and stretch, while the neck injury made it difficult to look up at the ball, she said.
The impact was immediately apparent, with the sharp serve that proved crucial in her first round victory deserting her. She sent down a solitary ace and contributed to her own demise with nine double faults.
"I've been working hard to get it all sorted but, as you could see, I wasn't serving that great.
"I called the trainer on to see if anything could help but it didn't really.
"And then Elena is an Olympic gold medallist, she plays very well and it was tough conditions. It was just tough all round.
"There were some positives, some good rallies, it was a good experience," the New Zealander said.
Dementieva was never really tested, breaking Erakovic in the third and seventh games of the first set.
Erakovic claimed her only service break in the second game of the second set but the Russian broke back immediately and controlled the set from there to coast to victory.
As well as coping comfortably with Erakovic's below-par serve, Dementieva exposed her backhand with a cool display of precision tennis.
"She has a great serve and a very good forehand so I tried to put a lot of pressure on her backhand because she goes for the slice a lot.
"I was trying to take advantage of that," Dementieva said.
"I played a bit better than yesterday and this is what I need, to keep improving and play better tennis in each round." She now meets fifth seed Shahar Peer, who beat Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in three sets.
The Israeli is expected to be the subject of an anti-war protest at the stadium gates today but she didn't think it would affect her game.
"I'm just coming here to enjoy playing tennis," Peer said.
"That is my main reason and that is what I am going to do tomorrow."
The pair have met five times, with Peer taking out the first encounter and Dementieva the next four, including victories in the Australia Open and Wimbledon last year.
Last year's beaten finalist Aravane Rezai booked a quarter-final against German qualifier Kristina Barrois with a straight sets victory over seventh seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Four other seeds also tumbled out of the tournament in the second round.
Third seed Anabel Medina Garrigues was beaten 6-3, 6-3 by Romanian Edina Gallovits and British No 1 Anne Keothavong accounted for eighth seed Carla Suarez Navarro.
Fourth seed Aleksandra Wozniak was upset in straight sets by Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita.
Russian dark horse Elena Vesnina advanced, beating Czech sixth seed Nicole Vaidisova.
Vesnina now faces in-form second seed Caroline Wozniacki in what looks the pick of the quarter-final ties.
The hard-hitting Wozniacki had a second straight comfortable outing, easing past American veteran Jill Craybas 6-4, 7-5.
