American Lindsay Davenport defeated Dinara Safina of Russia 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the Kremlin Cup on Thursday to regain the No. 1 position in the WTA rankings.
Davenport was joined in the quarterfinals by fellow American Venus Williams, who outclassed Russian teenager Vera Douchevina 6-0, 6-4.
PHOTO: AFP
Also securing quarterfinal berths were French Open and defending champion Anastasia Myskina, who overcame a one-set deficit to defeat fellow Russian Elena Likhovtseva 2-6, 6-1, 6-0, and Russian fifth seed Elena Dementieva, who beat Croatian qualifier Sanda Manic 6-3, 6-3.
PHOTO: AFP
"I'm amazed that I was able to get back to No. 1 after a tough couple of years," said Davenport, who was last at the top on Jan. 13, 2002.
Davenport will overtake Amelie Mauresmo next week to go top of the rankings for the fifth time. She trailed Mauresmo by just 15 points, 4,395 to 4,380 after winning the Porsche Grand Prix on Sunday.
In the finals at Filderstadt, Mauresmo retired after aggravating her strained left thigh. She was the top seed in Moscow, but withdrew because of the injury.
In the quarterfinals, Davenport will face Italy's Francesca Schiavone.
Wild card Douchevina was helpless in the first set, which looked like a master class.
The Russian proved to be a good student, breaking Willams at love and narrowing the gap to 5-4 in the second set before the American served for the match to win in 56 minutes.
"In the second I found my game and forced her [Williams] to make mistakes, but she is a player of a much higher level and all that was left for me was to learn from her," Douchevina said.
Williams said: "Myself and my sister, we still set the standard. I see players out there trying to do the things that Serena and I do. For them it's all about seeing if they can do the things that I do. And it makes me proud."
Willams faces Russia's Elena Bovina on Friday.
Dementieva had little trouble against Manic. She meets Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals -- their first meeting since Kuznetsova beat her in the US Open final.
Myskina, who said she was running a temperature and missed two days of practice, managed two breaks early in the first set, but failed to hold a serve of her own.
She charged back in the second set, winning five consecutive games and serving to level the match 1-1. She then closed out the match in 1 hour and 25 minutes.
In the quarterfinals, third-seeded Myskina will face Russia's Vera Zvonareva, seeded sixth.
Top-seeded David Nalbandian of Argentina and Olympic champion Nicolas Massu of Chile advanced to the quarterfinals of the CA Trophy Thursday with straight-set victories while American Robby Ginepri upset No. 5 Paradorn Srichaphan to reach the final eight.
Nalbandian beat Austria's Stefan Koubek 6-2, 7-6 (6), while No. 2 seed Massu beat South African Rik de Voest 6-4, 6-2. Two other seeds, No. 6 Guillermo Canas of Argentina and No. 8 Feliciano Lopez also advanced while the unseeded Ginepri eliminated Paradorn of Thailand 6-2, 6-1.
Nalbandian dominated seemingly nervous Koubek and won the first set in just over a half hour. Koubek appeared to gain confidence in front of a supportive home crowd in the second set, playing more aggressively, taking a 6-5 lead and earning a set point as Nalbandian struggled with his serve.
However, the 22-year-old South American hammered four straight winners to send the match to a tiebreak, where he wrapped up the victory with a pair of aces.
"I had a great start into the game and everything went fine, but I knew that Stefan would come back at some stage and he did," Nalbandian said. "In the end the tibreak was a bit lucky, but they always are."
The 10th-ranked Argentine advanced to the quarterfinals to face compatriot Canas, who beat American Taylor Dent 6-4, 6-4.
Massu had five break points in the opening game, but de Voest fought him off until the ninth game, where the Chilean converted the second of two more.
He opened the second set with a break and earned another en route to the victory.
Spain's Alex Corretja overcame Gregory Carraz of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Thursday during the second round of the US$446,050 ATP tournament.
The victory sends Corretja to a quarterfinal meeting with American Jeff Morrison, who upset sixth-seeded Julien Benneteau 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Morrison's victory leaves only No. 1 Ivan Ljubicic as the only remaining seed in the event.
In other mataches, Gael Monfils defeated French countryman Olivier Patience 6-4, 6-4, and Paul-Henri Mathieu beat Florent Serra 7-6, 6-1 in another all-French match.
Meghann Shaughnessy advanced to the Tashkent Open semifinals Friday with a decisive 6-2, 6-3 win over Ukraine's Olga Savchuk.
Shaughnessy is the highest-seeded player still in the tournament after hometown favorite Iroda Tulyaganova upset top-seeded Marion Bartoli of France in the first round. Tulyaganova, however, was knocked out of play with a loss Thursday to Italy's Antonella Serra Zanetti.
In other quarterfinals later Friday, Spain's Marta Marrero played Virginie Razzano of France, Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic faced Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain and Serra Zanetti took on Anca Barna of Germany.
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