Stosur into last eight, Dolgopolov out of Kermlin Cup

Australia’s Samantha Stosur returns a ball to France’s player Alize Cornet during the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament in Moscow. Stosur won 7-6 (8/6), 7-5 in two hours 28 minutes.

MOSCOW (AFP): Australia’s Samantha Stosur, top seed of the 1.5-million-dollar joint ATP and WTA Kremlin Cup tournament, earned a quarter-final spot with a straight-set win over France’s Alize Cornet on Thursday.

In the men’s section, French qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin produced a big upset as he survived four match points before seeing off Ukraine’s top seed Alexander Dolgopolov in a tough third-set tiebreak.

Stosur, who is ninth in the WTA rankings, prevailed 7-6 (8/6), 7-5 in two hours 28 minutes to draw her head-to-head record with the 22-year-old Cornet level at 2-2.

“We always play tough against each other,” Stosur said. “But we haven’t met for a long time and we have both seriously improved our tennis since our last meeting.”

“Today I had plenty of opportunities and chances to finish the points off. And it was important to believe I was doing everything right to receive the win as a reward.”

The rivals traded breaks twice in the opening set to force a tiebreak which Stosur won to gain a one-set lead in one hour 21 minutes.

In the second set there was liuttle between the pair but the 28-year-old Stosur got the deciding break in the 11th game to take the set and the match.

Stosur will now face Czech Klara Zakopalova for a place in the semis.

Fourth seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia cruised comfortably into the last eight with a 6-1, 6-4 win over 19-year-old local qualifier Valeria Solovieva.

“It was a good match for me overall,” the 2008 French Open champion and former world number one Ivanovic said.

“Though the surface here is rather slow and it took some time to adjust to it.

“And it’s never easy to play someone you haven’t seen before as you don’t know how they react in the different sutuations but I’m happy I managed to finish the match in good style.”

Seventh seed Maria Kirilenko, the last Russian player in the field, beat Yaroslava Shvevdova of Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-4 on her way into the quarter-finals.

French Edouard Roger-Vasselin returns a ball to Ukrainian Alexander Dolgopolov during the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament match in Moscow. Roger-Vasselin, 116th in the ATP rankings, advanced into the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8/6) win.

Roger-Vasselin, 116th in the ATP rankings, advanced into the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8/6) win over Dolgopolov to face Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic, who ousted Alex Bogomolov of Russia, for a place in the last four.

“It was a very close and tough match. And it was decided by just a couple of points,” the 28-year-old unheralded Frenchman said.

“I survived four matchpoints but also missed several easy shots before winning the match.”

“I didn’t play yet against Karlovic but it’s gonna be a really tough quarter-final match anyway.”

Italy’s second seed Andreas Seppi beat Dutchman Igor Sijsling 7-5, 6-2 to meet eight seed Tatsuma Ito in the match for a place in the semis.

Argentina’s seventh-seeded Carlos Berlocq failed to enter the quarter-finals suffering a 6-3, 6-4 defeat at the hands of unheralded Pole Jerzy Janowicz, who is 74th in the ATP rankings.