October 10, 2008	Friday	Shawwal 10, 1429

MOSCOW, Oct 9: Ana Ivanovic became the second high-profile player to tumble out of the Kremlin Cup in two days after losing to Dominika Cibulkova 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 on Wednesday.

The Serbian fourth seed followed Wimbledon champion and sixth seed Venus Williams, who was ousted by Italy’s Flavia Pennetta in the first round on Tuesday.

World No 5 Ivanovic had two match points in the 10th game but the unseeded Slovak fought back to force a tiebreak, where she held her nerve to clinch a memorable victory.

Second seed Dinara Safina avoided the exit after outlasting former world No 1 Amelie Mauresmo 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the last match on centre court which finished near midnight.

Safina led 5-2 in the decider before the Frenchwoman, who has dropped outside the top 20 because of injury and poor form, staged a late rally.

She broke the world number three in the ninth game to get back on serve 5-4 but the Russian hit right back to seal a hard-fought victory.

Olympic champion Elena Dementieva also showed her fighting qualities to outlast Slovenian qualifier Katarina Srebotnik 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 to reach the quarter-finals.The Russian third seed hit two successive aces in the tiebreak to end a contest that lasted nearly three hours.

Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also reached the last eight, the Russian eliminating Italian Sara Errani 7-6, 6-1, but compatriot Anna Chakvetadze, seeded eighth, disappointed home fans at the Olympic sports complex.

Chakvetadze, who has struggled for form for much of the year, lost to Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Men’s third seed Mikhail Youzhny was also shown the door, going down to fellow Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 7-5, 4-6, 7-6.

World No 22 Youzhny was expected to beat his lesser-known compatriot but paid the price for losing his cool in the tiebreak as he allowed the 66th-ranked Gabashvili to reel off the last seven points in the match.

Second-seeded Russian Igor Andreev, who won here in 2005, also bowed out, losing to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Russia lost another seed when fifth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov, who won his fifth ATP title in Metz on Sunday, withdrew from his first-round match without hitting a ball with a shoulder injury.

Fourth seed and 2002 winner Paul-Henri Mathieu of France had little problem dispatching Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-2.

Wednesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Second round: Jeremy Chardy (France) bt 2-Igor Andreev (Russia) 3-6, 7-5, 6-4; Fabrice Santoro (France) bt Denis Istomin (Uzbekistan) 6-2, 6-4.

First round: 4-Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukraine) 6-3, 6-2; Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) bt Mikhail Kukushkin (Russia) 6-1, 4-6, 6-1; Teimuraz Gabashvili (Russia) bt 3-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-1); Mischa Zverev (Germany) bt Denis Gremelmayr (Germany) 6-3, 7-6 (9-7).

Women’s singles:

Second round: 2-Dinara Safina (Russia) bt Amelie Mauresmo (France) 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-4; Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) bt 4-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4); 5-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt Sara Errani (Italy) 7-6 (7-0), 6-1; 3-Elena Dementieva (Russia) bt Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2).

First round: Nadia Petrova (Russia) bt Anna Lapushchenkova (Russia) 6-2, 6-1; Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) bt 8-Anna Chakvetadze (Russia) 2-6, 6-1, 6-4

SCARE FOR GONZALEZ

VIENNA: Second seed Fernando Gonzalez was forced to defend five match points against Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis on Wednesday before recovering to reach the Vienna Open quarter-finals.After losing the opening set, the Chilean world No 12 clung on to take the second set tiebreak 13-11, eventually wrapping up the match 4-6, 7-6, 6-1.

“It was a lot of match points and he was in control of the match most of the time,” said Gonzalez who his chasing his third title of the season as well as a place in the lucrative season-ending Masters Cup.

“But I was happy with the way I turned back the match and winning 6-1 at the end is really good for my confidence.”

Spanish fifth seed Fernando Verdasco made surprisingly light work of Guillermo Canas, winning 6-1, 6-2.

In a first round encounter, Argentine third seed Juan Martin del Potro beat Austria’s Martin Fischer in two tiebreaks.

In the now seedless top half of the draw, German qualifier Philipp Petzschner continued his impressive run.

Having seen off Swiss top seed and world No 10 Stanislas Wawrinka on Tuesday, the world No 125 beat Czech fellow qualifier Jan Hernych 6-3, 6-4.

Petzschner will now face either the Spanish former world No 1 Carlos Moya or Argentina’s Eduardo Schwank for a place in the semi-finals.

Results:

Second round: 2-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) bt Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) 4-6, 7-6 (13-11), 6-1; Philipp Petzschner (Germany) bt Jan Hernych (Czech Republic) 6-3, 6-4; 5-Fernando Verdasco (Spain) bt Guillermo Canas (Argentina) 6-1, 6-2.

First round: 8-Gael Monfils (France) bt Alexander Peya (Austria) 3-6, 6-1, 6-3; 3-Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) bt Martin Fischer (Austria) 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-5).—Reuters