Tennis: Crowd favourite out of ASB Classic

3.45pm

The centre court crowd at the ASB Classic was treated to a three-set thriller today between new crowd favourite Ashley Harkleroad and Emmanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland.

Harkleroad looked good serving for the match, but threw away a match point before losing to Gagliardi 2-6 6-1 6-7(5). Both players received a standing ovation.

On court four, American Jill Craybas came through her match with former champion Meilen Tu 6-4 6-4. She will meet the winner of the Anna Pistolesi/Elena Likhovtseva second-round match in the quarter-finals.

In the early matches today, second seed Eleni Daniilidou of Greece wasted no time in trouncing German Martina Muller 6/3 6/0.

On court four Russian Vera Zvonareva disposed of German Anca Barna 6/3 6/4.