Defending champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reached the Kremlin Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday, while US Open winner Flavia Pennetta pulled out through injury, despite also successfully booking her last-eight spot.
Pavlyuchenkova, the world No. 29, defeated second seed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-7 (2/7), 6-3 to record her fifth win in seven meetings against the left-handed French Open runner-up.
“I’m really tired,” said Pavlyuchenkova, who won her first WTA Tour title of the year in Linz, Austria, at the weekend. “I felt exhausted ahead of today’s match. I have no idea how I managed to win it.”
Pavlyuchenkova took the opening set in 35 minutes and grabbed a commanding 5-2 lead in the second, but Safarova — who needed to reach the semi-finals to claim a singles spot in the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore — battled back to send the set into a tiebreak, which she won.
Early in the deciding set, Pavlyuchenkova took a medical time-out because of the problems with her ribs, but the 24-year-old Russian still managed to regain the initiative and take the tie.
Italian third seed Pennetta cruised comfortably into the last eight with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Russia’s Daria Gavrilova, which guaranteed her a spot in the singles at the WTA Finals next week, but an hour later, the US Open champion withdrew from the rest of the Moscow event due to problems with her right foot.
Pennetta’s withdrawal handed Ukraine’s Lesya Tsurenko a walkover into the semi-finals.
In the ATP Tour section of the event, second seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, last year’s runner-up, cruised into the last eight, disposing of Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan 6-2, 7-5.
Third seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia, the 2010 champion, lost to Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-2, 6-3, while Dutchman Robin Haase ousted Uruguayan fifth seed Pablo Cuevas 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.
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