On a beautiful day on the west coast of America, the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina was the only seed to emerge unscathed as she defeated American hopeful Nicole Gibbs, whilst her rivals Andrea Petkovic, Madison Keys and Carla Suarez Navarro all fell. In a tight match, Svitolina prevailed 6-3 7-6(5) over Gibbs. 

Svitolina struggles 

Both players struggled to assert themselves on serve throughout and with over 20 break point opportunities presented between them, neither could really ever snatch any momentum.  The eighth seed Svitolina stuggled force the issue against the talented Gibbs, who was looking to secure her fourth win in three days after she had survived the qualifying. 

But it would be the younger and higher ranked Svitolina who would finally seal the opening set, securing one extra break than the home favourite to seal a messy opening set. The French Open quarter finalist and much touted Ukrainian looked the most likely of the two to now run away with the match but Gibbs had other ideas. 

In another stop-start set, both players routinely lost their service games and struggled to stike the ball cleanly, with both winning under 50% of points on their own serve.  It was far from a classic at the Bank of West, and the players soon found themselves in a tie break, with Svitolina eyeing her place in the quarter finals.  

Svitolina would eventually prevail, as she had just a little too much for Gibbs in the tie break, defeating her by 7-5 to seal the 6-3 7-6(5) victory.  'Disappointed but so thankful for the amazing @stanford fans this week!#onwardsandupwards,' Gibbs said on her official twitter page after the match.  

The draw opens as seeds tumble

Meanwhile, Elina Svitolina's draw has become all the more open, as her seeded rivals Andrea Petkovic, Madison Keys and Carla Suarez Navarro all lost to lower ranked rivals.  And it will be Suarez Navarro's conqueror Alison Riske who Svitolina faces in the next round.  Playing against the third seed, Riske produced a spirited performance to defeat the Spaniard 6-4 6-4. 

However, the match did have an unsavory moment, when during some on court coaching from Stephen Amritraj removed his microphone and used some choice language towards her and will do nothing to quieten those who oppose the controversial coaching. 

Elsewhere, Andrea Petkovic lost in an all German encounter to Mona Barthel in a thrilling match as she defeated the higher ranked Petkovic 5-7 6-2 7-6(4), and Ajla Tomljanovic defeated Madison Keys 1-6 6-4 6-1.