Fri, October 10, 2008
MOSCOW - Serbia's Jelena Jankovic, top seed of the Kremlin Cup, a 2.4-million-dollar joint ATP and WTA event, battled into the quarter-final round here on Thursday past Vera Dushevina of Russia.
But Jankovic, 23, who is also world's number one, has to come back from a set down to win 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-2 in two hours 30 minutes to record her fourth win over Dushevina in their five head-to-head meetings.
The rivals were trading breaks throughout the opening set forcing a tiebreak, which Russia's 22-year-old wildcard won for a 1-0 lead in 58 minutes.
In the second Dushevina, who is currently 77th in the world, broke immediately for a 2-0 lead but Jankovic broke back twice to level at one set all after one hour 54 minutes on court.
Jankovic started the third set with a couple of breaks for a commanding 4-0 advantage just minutes before she won the set and the match to enter 19th quarter-final in her 20th year's event.
Russia's Vera Zvonareva, who was seeded seventh here, also booked a quarter-final pass outclassing Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets 6-1, 6-0 to record her fourth head-to-head win in as many meetings.
Zvonareva, currently ninth in the world, came into the match at top concentration clinching a 4-0 commanding advantage before Hantuchova chalked up her first point of the match.
After winning the opening set in 23 minutes Russia's 24-year-old underlined her supremacy in the second, taking it at love to set up a meeting with another Slovak Dominika Cibulkova in the match for a place in the semis.
"I didn't make any unforced mistakes tonignt," Zvonareva said. "I was serving and returning well."
"But I know that one can have just one or two such an easy matches during the season."
Top seed of the ATP section of the tournament Nikolay Davydenko of Russia barely broke sweat presenting a 56-minute masterclass to the Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez clinching a 6-1, 6-1 win on his way to the quarter-finals.
"The score speaks for itself," Davydenko said. "I played confidently and controlled the match."
In the match for a place in the semis Davydenko, who is seeking his year's fourth title at his home courts, will face his seventh-seeded fellow compatriot Marat Safin, who beat Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-4, 0-6, 6-2.
Another Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, 2002 champion here, also battled into quarter-final round from a set down beating Dudi Sela of Israel 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 7-6 (7/0) to face a compatriot Fabrice Santoro.
Meanwhile, Serbia's Viktor Troicki upset his eighth-seeded compatriot Janko Tipsarevic ousting him in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 in one hour 22 minutes to meet Germany's Mischa Zverev, who beat Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.
