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Ivanovic tumbles, Dementieva wins in Moscow

MOSCOW
Wed Oct 8, 2008 2:04pm EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ana Ivanovic became the second high-profile player to tumble out of the Kremlin Cup in two days after losing to Dominika Cibulkova 3-6 6-2 7-6 on Wednesday.

Sports  |  Russia

The Serbian fourth seed followed Wimbledon champion and sixth seed Venus Williams, who was ousted by Italy's Flavia Pennetta in the first round on Tuesday.

World number five Ivanovic had two match points in the 10th game but the unseeded Slovak fought back to force a tiebreak, where she held her nerve to clinch a memorable victory.

Olympic champion Elena Dementieva also showed her fighting qualities to outlast Slovenian qualifier Katarina Srebotnik 6-3 4-6 7-6 to reach the quarter-finals.

The Russian third seed hit two successive aces in the tiebreak to end a contest that lasted nearly three hours.

"I've played her several times this season and every time I have had problems with her game," said holder Dementieva who lost to Srebotnik in their last encounter in Tokyo last month.

"I was prepared this time, so it paid off."

Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also reached the last eight, the Russian eliminating Italian Sara Errani 7-6 6-1, but compatriot Anna Chakvetadze, seeded eighth, disappointed home fans at the Olympic sports complex.

Chakvetadze, who has struggled for form for much of the year, lost to Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 2-6 6-1 6-4.

Men's third seed Mikhail Youzhny was also shown the door, going down to fellow Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 7-5 4-6 7-6.

World number 22 Youzhny was expected to beat his lesser-known compatriot but paid the price for losing his cool in the tiebreak as he allowed the 66th-ranked Gabashvili to reel off the last seven points in the match.

In-form Dinara Safina, seeded second, was facing former world number one Amelie Mauresmo later on center court followed by another Russia v France duel between men's second seed Igor Andreev and Jeremy Chardy.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez and Pritha Sarkar)



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