MOSCOW: Top seeds Milos Raonic and Dominika Cibulkova both crashed out of the Kremlin Cup ATP and WTA tournament following second-round defeats here on Thursday.

Canada’s Raonic and Slovak Cibulkova both went down in three sets to qualifiers Ricardas Berankis and Vitalia Diatchenko respectively.

Lithuanian Berankis, 24, ousted world number nine Raonic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in one hour 52 minutes to level his record with the Canadian big server at 1-1.

Raonic, who enjoyed an opening-round bye, looked slightly rusty from the outset, while Berankis, 116th in the world, broke twice for a one-set lead after 34 minutes.

In the second set, Raonic picked up steam also breaking his rival’s serve twice to level at one set all after one hour 16 minutes on court.

But in the deciding set Raonic lost his nerve again allowing Berankis to produce the decisive break to advance into the final eight.

In the women’s event, 2011 champion Cibulkova joined the exodus of seeds falling to Moscow resident Diatchenko, who advanced into the last eight with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory in their first ever meeting.

The opponents traded breaks throughout the opening set but this year’s Australian Open runner-up Cibulkova proved more accurate, earning a 1-0 advantage.

In the second set, Cibulkova, ranked 14th, suddenly produced a catalogue of unforced errors allowing unheralded Diatchenko to break three times to level at one set all.

Diatchenko, who is 140th in the world, broke twice early in the third set for a commanding 4-0 lead and kept it through to face her sixth seeded compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who beat American Alison Riske 6-2, 6-2.

MURRAY, FERRER MAKE QUARTERS

VIENNA: Andy Murray reached the quarter-finals of the Austrian Open after a hard-fought 6-4, 6-4 win over Vasek Pospisil of Canada here on Thursday.

The second-seeded Murray, who had a bye in the first round, dropped serve while leading 3-2 in the second set but held off five more break chances for Pospisil. The Canadian had 27 aces in his first-round win over Daniel Brands of Germany but just three against Murray.

Murray next plays Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany, who won the last seven points in the third-set tiebreaker to beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 7-6 (6), 2-6, 7-6 (3).

David Ferrer of Spain advanced to his 15th quarter-final of the season after defeating Tobias Kamke of Germany 7-5, 6-1. The fifth-ranked Ferrer, the top seed, avoided service breaks and converted his second match point with a forehand winner.

Ferrer will play No. 6 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in the quarter-finals.

The Spaniard needs to reach Sunday’s final to improve his chances of qualifying for the ATP Finals.

Earlier, Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil rallied to beat the 2004 champion, No. 3 Feliciano Lopez, 6-7 (9), 6-1, 6-4.Lopez, who was ranked a career-high 14th after beating Rafael Nadal on his way to the Shanghai semi-finals last week, lost eight straight games from 1-1 in the second. The Spaniard also lost 19 points in a row, including the first 13 of the final set.

Bellucci will meet Viktor Troicki of Serbia, who reached his third quarterfinal since returning from a doping ban in July by beating No. 5 Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2.

Also, Benjamin Becker of Germany defeated last year’s finalist, Robin Haase of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-3, winning six straight games to lead by a set and 2-0. He lined up a quarterfinal against compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2014