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Jankovic, Davydenko advance to quarterfinals at Kremlin Cup
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-10 09:22 MOSCOW - Serbia's Jelena Jankovic, top seed of the Kremlin Cup, a 2.4-million-dollar joint ATP and WTA event, battled into the quarter-final round here on Thursday past Vera Dushevina of Russia.
But Jankovic, 23, who is also world's number one, has to come back from a set down to win 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-2 in two hours 30 minutes to record her fourth win over Dushevina in their five head-to-head meetings. The rivals were trading breaks throughout the opening set forcing a tiebreak, which Russia's 22-year-old wildcard won for a 1-0 lead in 58 minutes. In the second Dushevina, who is currently 77th in the world, broke immediately for a 2-0 lead but Jankovic broke back twice to level at one set all after one hour 54 minutes on court. Jankovic started the third set with a couple of breaks for a commanding 4-0 advantage just minutes before she won the set and the match to enter 19th quarter-final in her 20th year's event. Russia's Vera Zvonareva, who was seeded seventh here, also booked a quarter-final pass outclassing Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets 6-1, 6-0 to record her fourth head-to-head win in as many meetings. Zvonareva, currently ninth in the world, came into the match at top concentration clinching a 4-0 commanding advantage before Hantuchova chalked up her first point of the match. |