The Italian fifth seed had too much firepower for Japan's Date Krumm, comfortably advancing to the quarter-finals of the $2 million Tokyo event.
Date Krumm, champion in 1995, blamed fatigue for her flat performance after knocking out Daniela Hantuchova and defending champion Maria Sharapova.
Date Krumm quit tennis in 1996 before coming out of retirement in 2008. This year, she became the oldest woman to beat a top 10 player by knocking Dinara Safina out of the French Open. In other matches, Danish top seed Caroline Wozniacki edged closer to seizing the number one ranking with a 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Second seed Vera Zvonareva outmuscled Italian Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-0 to set up a quarterfinal against fellow Russian Elena Dementieva, who beat Italy's Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-2.
Published 29 September 2010, 17:16 IST