Roberta Vinci first through to U.S. Open quarter-finals

By Steve Keating

NEW YORK ( Reuters) - Italian seventh seed Roberta Vinci was first through to the U.S. Open quarter-finals, taming Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko 7-6(5) 6-2 on Sunday.

At number 99 the lowest ranked player to make it through to the last 16, Tsurenko represented a tricky test for last year's U.S. Open runner-up having knocked off 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova and 21st seed Irina-Camelia Begu to get to the fourth round.

The 27-year-old Ukrainian looked prepared to add another seeded scalp to her Flushing Meadows collection as she forced the first set to a tie-break before surrendering 7-5.

After a draining 67-minute opening set, Tsurenko had little left in the tank for the second and Vinci stamped her authority on the match quickly by going up a break and cruising to an easy win to clinch a spot in the last eight for the third time in four years.

Next up for Vinci is the winner between second-seeded Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber and 14th-seeded twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.

(Editing by Larry Fine)