Caroline Wozniacki moved within one victory of regaining the No. 1 ranking after beating Japan's Ayumi Morita 6-1, 6-0 Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championships.
The 20-year-old Dane, who lost the top spot to Kim Clijsters on Monday, was never seriously challenged by the 57th-ranked Japanese qualifier. She now must beat Shahar Peer of Israel to return to No. 1. Wozniacki lost to Peer in the third round last year.
''To be honest, I don't really think about it,'' Wozniacki said. ''If I play well, the ranking will come automatically. For me, tomorrow I'm going to go out there and play my best. That's all I can do.''
In earlier matches, U.S. Open finalist Vera Zvonareva and French Open champion Francesca Schiavone were both eliminated in the third round.
Alisa Kleybanova beat Russian teammate Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2, while Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Schiavone 1-6, 6-0, 7-5.
Samantha Stosur of Australia also reached the quarterfinals, beating Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder 6-3, 6-4, while Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland defeated Marion Bartoli of France 6-3, 6-2 and Peer overcame a sluggish start to beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic rallied to beat Estonia's Kaia Kanepi 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in nearly 2 1/2 hours.
Italy's Flavia Pennetta came back from 4-1 down in the third set to beat seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-4. Pennetta seemed on her way to a relatively straightforward victory but she blew a 5-1 lead in the second to allow the ninth-ranked Azarenka to even the match.
Pennetta injured her left ankle early in the match but kept playing. She later pulled out of her doubles match Thursday with Schiavone but said she ''hoped'' to be able to play Friday against Kleybanova.
Peer was denied a visa to the event two years ago - with tournament organizers saying they feared fan anger over Israel's three-week military offensive in Gaza - and is playing in Dubai amid heavy security. She is staying separately from the other players in a guarded compound and this week has played all her matches on the isolated Court 1.
Wozniacki has played all her matches on the larger Center Court, but will now have to adjust to the smaller venue against Peer.
''On a small court, it's completely different,'' Wozniacki said. ''So definitely I'll to have get used to that. She has a big advantage there.''
The highly anticipated match between Schiavone and Kuznetsova lacked the drama of their Australian Open encounter in Melbourne which lasted nearly five hours and was the longest women's Grand Slam singles match in the Open era. Schiavone won that fourth-round match.
After two quick sets that went opposite ways, Kuznetsova needed seven match points to win.
''I said to myself, 'Look, you still have it. You're good enough. It's just matter of closing the deal,''' Kuznetsova said. ''I just cannot close it. It's just one point, a stupid point, but it's only one. I win like 101 during the match, and I can't win just final one. It's funny.''
Kleybanova had six aces against Zvonareva, an Australian Open semifinalist and runner-up at the U.S. Open and Wimbledon.
''Maybe the score looked easy, but the match wasn't really easy today. We had a lot of fighting in many games,'' said Kleybanova, who has beaten Zvonareva twice before, the last time in 2009 in Tokyo.
Zvonareva, who reached the quarterfinals last year in Dubai, called the match one of her worst recent performances.
''Definitely, it wasn't my day today. I think I didn't play too good,'' she said. ''Too many unforced errors. Probably one of the worse matches in a while from my part.''
Stosur, a 2010 French Open finalist who has started slowly this year, hasn't really been tested yet in Dubai. She only dropped a game in her second round match victory over Sara Errani. Against the 32-year-old Schnyder, Stosur won the first set easily even though she only got 36 percent of her first serves in.
In the second set, Stosur let slip an early break of serve but two double faults from Schnyder helped the Australian player break again for a 5-4 lead before she served out the win with a love game.
