Alicia Molik was beaten in a close battle in the second round of the WTA event in Bangalore.

The South Australian went down to fellow unseeded player Olga Savchuk of Ukraine 6-4 4-6 6-4

Molik led 4-3 in the first set, but squandered two successive service points to drop the set. She came back strongly to claim the second set.

In the deciding third set, Molik was leading 4-3 after breaking Savchuk early but her weak and faulty service in the eighth game allowed Savchuk to bounce back.

"Savchuk was lucky, but she hung in there and fought well," said Molik.

Savchuk agreed that Molik could have won the contest.

"After a stage it didn't matter if I won or lost. I was fighting for every point and that helped me bounce back," she said.

Top-seed and defending champion Mara Santangelo of Italy rallied from a first-set deficit to quell the challenge of Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova 3-6 7-5 6-2.

Second-seeded Sania Mirza of India also rebounded after dropping the first set to defeat Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus 3-6 7-5 6-2.

Also advancing to the quarter-finals was Melinda Czink of Hungary, a 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-5 victor over Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan.

Santangelo appeared out of rhythm in the beginning, allowing Amanmuradova to run away with the opening set.

"I was very tired after playing a lot of matches recently, I just wasn't able to put my first serves in," said Santangelo, who continued to struggle as she trailed 0-3 in the second set.

Santangelo used her experience to break back and draw level at 3-3.

"Even at 0-3, I didn't think the match was over and tried to do my best to get back," said Santangelo.

The scores remained level until 5-5 before Santangelo again broke Amanmuradova 's service in the 11th game and then served out the set.

Amanmuradova's challenge faded away in the third set as Santangelo moved into a quarter-final contest with Yurika Sema of Japan, who has advanced from a qualifying competition to make the last-eight grade.

Hsieh proved a tough opponent for Czink, who had to sweat out for more than two hours - the second time on successive days - before winning the second-round match.

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