Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, top seed of the Kremlin Cup, a US$2.4 million joint ATP and WTA event, battled into the quarter-final round on Thursday past Vera Dushevina of Russia.
But Jankovic, 23, who is also world No. 1, had 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.
PHOTO: AP
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.
PHOTO: AP
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 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 master class 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.
■AUSTRIAN OPEN
AFP, VIENNA
Frenchman Gael Monfils defeated Czech Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-3 at the Austrian Open on Thursday to set up a quarter-final clash with second seed Fernando Gonzalez, while third seed Juan Martin Del Potro was forced to withdraw with a foot injury.
Eighth-seeded Monfils produced an athletic performance and always looked the better player against an opponent that was persistent but prone to error, especially off his forehand.
Although Stepanek earned the first break to lead 4-2, Monfils immediately broke back and then broke again to lead 5-4 when Stepanek sent a forehand long.
Monfils then made a perfect start to the second set, earning break point with a lob and then breaking when Stepanek made another forehand error.
Although Monfils faced two break points when leading 3-2 he held off the challenge, and then broke again for the match when Stepanek netted a backhand volley.
“I think today I played very solid,” Monfils said. “I’m very happy because I had good focus during all the match. Radek is a tough player and I think my tactic today was very good. I tried to keep him very far on his baseline because he can be very dangerous inside the court.”
Feliciano Lopez of Spain reached his fifth consecutive Vienna quarter-final with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 win over Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo, recovering from 3-5 in the tiebreak before easing through the second set.
In the last of the second round matches, Austria’s Jurgen Melzer defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 7-6 (7/4), 6-3. Del Potro’s hopes for qualifying for the Masters Cup were dealt a blow when an injury to his right toe forced the 20-year old from Argentina to pull out of the tournament.
The problem, a split toenail similar to the problem that recently bothered Jelena Jankovic in Stuttgart, began at the US Open, and he aggravated the injury during his quarter-final win over David Ferrer last week.
The nail then broke completely during his first round win over Austria’s Martin Fischer on Wednesday. He also has a bruise on the big toe of his left foot.
His win against Fischer lifted him above James Blake into eighth position in the Race to the Masters Cup, but at the beginning of this week less than 100 points separated Blake and 22nd-placed Radek Stepanek.
Only the top eight players will compete in Shanghai from Nov. 9 to Nov. 16.
There are just three weeks of the regular season to play, and Del Potro hopes that he will be fit to contest the Masters events in Madrid and Paris in a bid to solidify his position.
Del Potro has been told to rest the foot for the next few days, and he will now travel to Madrid for treatment in a bid to play there next week.
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