Reuters
Moscow: Champion Jelena Jankovic was dumped out of the Kremlin Cup quarter-finals by Alisa Kleybanova 6-4 6-3 yesterday, a day after clinching the last remaining spot in next week’s WTA championships in Doha.
The Serbian second seed ended her stay in Moscow by double-faulting twice on the last two points to gift-wrap the win to the unseeded Russian after 85 minutes.
“It was a difficult match for me, I tried my best but she played better,” world number nine Jankovic, who lost to 27th-ranked Kleybanova in Toronto in August in their only previous meeting, told a news conference.
“I can’t say I was holding myself back having already qualified for Doha, but sometimes you try and it just doesn’t work out.”
Kleybanova, 20, said she fully deserved her victory.
“Of course, I’m very happy, but I’ve already beaten her once and I wanted to prove that that win was no fluke,” she said.
“Last time we played I had to save match points in the second set before winning in three, so this time it was very important for me to beat her in two sets, to show that I’m a better player.”
Jankovic’s defeat continued the cull of seeds at the annual indoor tournament, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
Top seed Vera Zvonareva was thrashed by world number 126 Tsvetana Pironkova 6-0 6-2 in the second round, ending the Russian’s hopes of qualifying for Doha, while Poland’s third seed Agnieszka Radwanska lost to Russia’s Maria Kirilenko in the first round.
The men’s top two seeds, Russian Nikolay Davydenko and Romanian Victor Hanescu, were also knocked out in the first round.
Italian Francesca Schiavone, at number eight, is the highest seed left in the women’s draw after beating Kirilenko 6-3 6-2 earlier in the day.
Unseeded Ukrainian Alena Bondarenko was the first to seal her place in the last four with a routine 6-3 6-3 win over Pironkova, sending the Bulgarian qualifier down to earth less than 24 hours after her biggest victory.
Bondarenko, who had lost in the first round on both of her previous appearances in Moscow, faces Schiavone in today’s semi-finals.
Kleybanova will meet the winner of the match between Russian Vera Dushevina and Olga Govortsova of Belarus.
LUXEMBOURG: US Open champion Kim Clijsters suffered a midnight defeat at the 220,000-dollar WTA Luxembourg tournament when Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder won their second round clash 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6).
Clijsters, the second seed, was bidding for a sixth title in this event, and second tournament victory since her return from two years of retirement.
Schnyder, the world number 47, had beaten Clijsters just twice in their eight prior meetings, and one of those was because of an injury retirement.
But she battled for almost two hours, recovering from a lost 5-3 lead in the third set and then regrouping after letting go a 4-0 lead in the tie-break.
“Patty played extremely smart. It’s tough to force errors on her and break through her game,” said Clijsters.
“I made more unforced errors and my first serve wasn’t working the way I would have liked it to. I had my chances in the first set and I tried to fight through. It’s disappointing when you’re not playing your best.”
Schnyder goes on to face German sixth seed Sabine Lisicki in the quarter-finals.
STOCKHOLM: Brazil’s Tomas Bellucci fired 18 aces to defeat Joachim Johansson 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in the Stockholm Open quarter-finals yesterday, leaving the home nation with just one player left in the draw.
Bellucci, 21, whose last quarter-final appearance in August led to a career breakthrough trophy on clay at Gstaad, will play today for a spot in the final against Oliver Rochus after the Belgian defeated Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.
The ace output of Bellucci, ranked 45th, was almost matched by Johansson, who fired 13 in his losing cause in just under 90 minutes.
The Brazilian winner saved the lone break point he faced while Johansson lost his own serve once.
Johansson’s lack of consistent match play due to years of shoulder injuries showed as he went down playing in his fourth Stockholm quarter-final.
The 27-year-old Swede’s best performance here was a run to the 2006 semi-finals, when he lost to Nieminen, also currently coming back from injury after spring wrist surgery.
Johansson stands 12-8 indoors at home and was playing his first quarter-final since January, 2007, in Adelaide, where he lost to Novak Djokovic.
Bellucci and Rochus have never played. |
