TASS, October 18. Russian Anna Blinkova (seed No. 8) has moved past her compatriot Margarita Gasparyan in their quarterfinal match at the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Luxembourg tournament, offering $250,000 in prize money.

Blinkova dominated the first set 6-3 and was on course to cruise through the second when Gasparyan retired down 0-1. The athletes squared off for the third time with Blinkova now leading 2-1 in their head-to-head. Blinkova, 21, is awaiting her semifinal opponent, who will be determined in another quarterfinal between Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko and German Antonia Lottner.

Blinkova is currently ranked 66th in the world in the WTA rankings and is having the best season of her career, making third round of this year’s French Open. Gasparyan occupies spot No. 81 and has two titles to her name.

The tournament in Luxembourg runs through October 20. Russian tennis player and Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva win the tournament in 2008, while Belgium’s Kim Clijsters holds a record number of titles in Luxembourg (5). German Julia Goerges is the defending champion and will contest her quarterfinal match later today.