Story highlights
Marion Bartoli wins her opening match at the Kremlin Cup to reach quarterfinals
French third seed will qualify for WTA Championships by winning title in Moscow
In men's draw, third seed Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr. and No. 7 Gilles Muller both crash out
At Stockholm Open, third seed Stanislas Wawrinka and No. 4 Juan Ignacio Chela lose
Marion Bartoli kept alive her hopes of qualifying for the season-ending WTA Championships by marching into the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup on Thursday.
The French third seed needs to win the tournament in Moscow in order to edge past Poland’s Agniezka Radwanska into the eighth and final place for the Istanbul showpiece starting next week.
She is in fine form after beating U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur in the Osaka final last weekend, and the 27-year-old made short work of Russia’s Kervenia Persak in her opening match after a first-round bye in the hard-court event.
Radwanska fails to clinch Istanbul berth
Bartoli triumphed 6-1 6-1 in their first career meeting to set up a last-eight clash with Elena Vesnina – who beat fellow Russian Ekaterina Ivanova 6-3 6-4.
If she beats Vesnina, then Bartoli will then face either Russian top seed Vera Zvonareva or Dominika Cibulkova in Saturday’s semis.
Slovakian eighth seed Cibulkova went through with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 win over Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic.
In the men’s draw, third seed Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr. and No. 7 Gilles Muller both crashed out in the second round on Thursday.
Ukraine’s Dolgopolov lost 6-3 7-6 (8-6) to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, while Luxembourg’s Muller was beaten 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 by Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.
The two unseeded victors will now meet in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Top seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia came from behind to beat Russia’s 2008 champion Igor Kunitsyn 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-0, and the 2009 runner-up will take on sixth seed Dimitry Tursunov in the last eight.
The Russian defeated France’s Julian Benneteau 6-3 7-6 (7-1).
At the men’s Stockholm Open, third seed Stanislas Wawrinka and No. 4 Juan Ignacio Chela failed to make the quarterfinals after defeats on Thursday.
Switzerland’s Wawrinka lost 6-3 6-4 to Finland’s two-time losing finalist Jarkko Nieminen, who will next face Germany’s world No. 253 Sebastian Reischick.
Chela followed his second-seeded fellow Argentine Juan Martin del Potro in exiting the tournament when he was upset 6-2 5-7 6-1 by 20-year-old Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
Dimitrov, ranked 70th, earned a clash with Canadian sixth seed Milos Raonic.
However, top seed Gael Monfils of France is through, although he was made to fight by Australian Bernard Tomic, advancing 6-4 6-7 (4/7) 6-4.
At the women’s Luxembourg Open, Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova earned a quarterfinal clash with German sixth seed Julia Gorges by beating Romania’s Simona Halep 6-2 6-2 on Thursday.
Dutch qualifier Bibiane Schoofs also went through, and will next face Britain’s Anne Keothavong – who eliminated Serbian fifth seed Ana Ivanovic 6-3 6-2 in a shock result.
Meanwhile, top seed Victoria Azarenka thrashed Italy’s Alberta Brianti 6-0 6-1, earning a quarterfinal against Czech Iveta Benesova.
