French No.1 Marion Bartoli celebrated her recall to the country's Fed Cup team on Wednesday with a battling 7-5, 6-1 second-round win over American Christina McHale at the Paris Open.
Earlier in the day captain Amelie Mauresmo ended Bartoli's nine-year exile from the international stage by naming her in a five-player squad to face Germany in next month's World Group II first-round tie in Limoges. Bartoli was forced to call upon her fighting spirit in the first set in the French capital, fending off four set points on McHale's serve at 4-5 before eventually breaking to level.
With the momentum fully in Bartoli's favour, she broke McHale twice more in the second set to earn a quarter-final showdown with Germany's Mona Barthel, who came from a set behind to knock out Italian fifth seed Roberta Vinci. Meanwhile, second seed Petra Kvitova overcame bouts of inconsistency as she edged past Swiss qualifier Stefanie Voegele in straight sets 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 to set up a last-eight match with either French teenager Mladenovic or Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.AFP
