World number three Jelena Jankovic was given a major fright before booking her place in the quarter-finals of the rain-hit DFS Classic in Birmingham.

The 22-year-old Florida-based Serb was pushed all the way by Russia's world number 44 Maria Kirilenko before coming through her third-round match 3-6 6-3 7-5.

The match, held over from on Thursday and delayed by a further 90 minutes on Friday morning, contained no fewer than 11 breaks of serve and lasted 12 minutes over two hours.

The 20-year-old Kirilenko was a set and a break up before losing five games in a row but demonstrated tremendous resilience in a marathon third set.

She looked to be on her way out when she was broken to love in her second service game but twice broke the second seed's serve before being edged out.

After Thursday's wash-out, a lengthy opening match on centre court was the last thing on the minds of the organisers.

The players were asked to play both third-round and quarter-final matches on Friday in a bid to get the Wimbledon warm-up tournament back on schedule for Sunday's final.

Fifth seed Marion Bartoli did her best to make up for lost time, taking less than an hour to see off German teenager Angelique Kerber.

Bartoli, who ended the hopes of British teenager Naomi Cavaday in the second round, took a stranglehold on the game from the outset, breaking her opponent at the start of each set, and cruised to a 6-2 6-0 victory in just 50 minutes.

Elena Likhovtseva, the 31-year-old Russian, was in an even bigger hurry, disposing of 17-year-old Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita 6-2 6-0 in just 42 minutes.

Morita, who produced the shock of the second round by knocking out seventh seed Ai Sugiyama, won just 23 out of 80 points in the match.

World number 18 Na Li, the Chinese fourth seed, was given a stiffer challenge by the other remaining qualifier Juliana Fedak, of the Ukraine.

Like Bartoli, Li broke her opponent at the start of each set but twice dropped her own serve and took 73 minutes in all to post a 6-4 6-4 victory.

Li's quarter-final opponent will be Italian Mara Santangelo, whose third-round match with Ukraine's Julia Vakulenko was over in 17 minutes when her opponent retired hurt.

Vakulenko, the ninth seed, went over on her ankle while leading 3-1 in the first set and was taken back to the clubhouse in a wheelchair.

Alona Bondarenko, of the Ukraine, joined the procession of top seeds into the quarter-finals when she beat American Vania King 6-1 6-3 to earn a meeting with Jankovic.

But top seed Maria Sharapova was once more held up by the rain, which began to fall just as she was about to begin her third-round match with 16-year-old Tamira Paszek.

Third seed Daniela Hantuchova, whose last match was on Tuesday, was also thwarted by the weather. She is due to play Eleni Daniilidou, of Greece.