Perth, WA, 28 February 2020 | Asher Packman

Victorian Destanee Aiava has surged through to the quarterfinals at the Perth International #2 with rain playing a significant role in the tournament thus far.

With skies clearing on Friday, the fifth seed brushed aside Zuzana Zlochova, 6-3 6-3, after the experienced Slovakian had earlier in the day expended much energy in edging out Ivana Popovic in three tight sets.

Aiava, 19, a finalist in Perth last week (lost to Maddison Inglis), now faces American third seed Asia Muhammad for a place in the semifinals.

The upset of the day saw Papa New Guinea’s Abigail Tere-Apisah bundle Arina Rodionova out of the tournament, defeating the top seed easily, 6-4 6-0, and surprisingly lifting their head-to-head encounters 4:1 in her favour.

Irina Ramialison stands in Tere-Apisah’s way on Saturday, after the Frenchwoman erased wildcard Alicia Smith’s chances, 6-3 6-0.

In only her second Australian Pro Tour event, Perth teenager, Talia Gibson, used her home ground advantage to defeat Hong Kong’s Ho Ching Wu in her opening match, but was unable to prevent Shiho Akita from reaching the last eight. The Japanese qualifier preceded the match with a three-set win over Abbie Myers (No.7).

Akita, last week’s semifinalist in Perth, will need to surpass Swiss Leonie Kung to keep her impressive run alive, the second seed a straight sets winner over qualifier Alana Parnaby who had already saved multiple match points in her previous match on Friday to advance.

The remaining quarterfinal sees American Jennifer Elie take on Korean Sohyun Park.

Live scores of all Australian Pro Tour events are available through www.tennis.com.au/protour/scores and for a live stream of selected events visit www.tennis.com.au/protour. For updates, follow @oztennisresults on Twitter.