MOSCOW: Lesia Tsurenko upset second-seeded Coco Vandeweghe on Wednesday to reach the quarter-final of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, while top-seed Kristina Mladenovic was knocked out by Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

Mladenovic and Vandeweghe had both received byes in the first round and the run of defeats left seventh-seeded Julia Goerges, the world No 27, as the highest-ranked player remaining.

Tsurenko, who took control of the match early in the first set, defeated Vandeweghe 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 in just over two hours. Her reward for beating Vandeweghe is a quarter-final against Goerges, who beat Yulia Putintseva 6-3, 6-3.

Sasnovich capitalised on Mladenovic’s 16 double faults to win the match 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 and earn a spot in the quarter-final where she will face Russia’s Daria Kasatkina, who beat Katerina Siniakova 6-2 6-3.

Also on Wednesday, Irina-Camelia Begu upset fourth-seeded Anastasija Sevastova, winning 6-4, 6-3.

Begu will face Belarusian qualifier Vera Lapko in the quarter-final after she beat Daria Gavrilova 6-3 3-1 after the Australian retired hurt.

A day after ousting Maria Sharapova in front of a jubilant crowd on Tuesday, the eighth-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova pulled out of her match with Alize Cornet after dropping the first set 6-1.

Cornet will face Russia’s Natalia Vikhlyantseva, who put paid to the title hopes of her compatriot, third-seeded Elena Vesnina, winning 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

In the men’s draw, the third-seeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino won his second-round match 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) against qualifier Lukas Rosol.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2017