This time last month tennis was the last thing on Tammi Patterson’s mind.
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The 27-year-old was in the emergency department of a Melbourne hospital after contracting a serious stomach bug while playing in Asia.
On Thursday, Patterson showed flashes of her best tennis in an upset win over third seed Destanee Aiava at the Bendigo International.
“My (preparation for the tournament) wasn’t ideal after being in the emergency department twice for a stomach parasite I picked up in Asia,’’ a delighted Patterson said after her second round victory.
“Getting a win yesterday and today makes me very happy.”
Patterson’s 7-5, 6-4 win was built on a mix of power and experience against her young opponent.
She’ll now take on the very much in-form Olivia Rogowska in Friday’s quarter-finals.
Rogowska, who won last week’s Pro Tour event in Canberra, demolished Ukrainian qualifier Marianna Zakarlyuk 6-0, 6-2 in 61 minutes in the second round on Thursday.
Sara Tomic continued her great form to advance to the quarter-finals.
The younger sister of Bernard Tomic followed up her first round of upset of second seed Asia Muhammad with a gutsy three-set win over France’s Alize Lim on Thursday.
Lim, ranked more than 200 places ahead of Tomic, wiped the young Aussie off the court in the first set, winning 6-0.
Tomic rallied strongly and bounced back to win the second set 6-1.
The decider was a battle of nerves. Both players had their serves broken four times and it was somewhat fitting that the match would be decided by a tie-breaker.
Tomic jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the breaker before Lim rallied to level the scores at 3-3. Just when it looked like Tomic might crack, she reeled off four-straight points to win the match.
Tomic will play Japan’s Mai Minokoshi in the quarter-finals. Minokoshi also rallied from a set-down in her win over Ballarat’s Zoe Hives 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Seventh seed Isabelle Wallace survived a two-and-half-hour marathon against Kimberly Birrell to set up a quarter-final date with fourth-seeded Slovakian Tamara Zidansek.
The fourth quarter-final will be played between PNG’s Abigail Tere-Apisah and top seed Arina Rodionova.
Rodionova was forced to work hard in her 6-4, 7-5 win over young Aussie Astra Sharma.
Tere-Apisah proved too strong for Naiktha Bains 7-5, 6-3.
Quarter-final action on Friday starts from 11am. Entry is free for spectators.