MOSCOW — Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia ousted second-seeded Lucie Safarova from the Kremlin Cup 6-1, 6-7 (2), 6-3 Wednesday, reducing the Czech player’s chances of making the season-ending WTA Finals.
Safarova’s second-round loss guaranteed a spot in Singapore next week for Germany’s Angelique Kerber.
The last two spots were still up for grabs, and US Open champion Flavia Pennetta also was in Moscow in hope of securing one of them. She advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win Wednesday over Daria Gavrilova of Russia.
After easily taking the first set, Pavlyuchenkova went up 5-2 in the second, but then lost the next three games and failed to convert her only match point in the set with Safarova serving at 6-5. She double-faulted on her opponent’s first set point in the tiebreaker. Reclaiming control in the decider, the Russian got the win when Safarova hit a volley long.
Pavlyuchenkova, last year’s winner in Moscow, stretched her unbeaten streak in indoor hard court events to 17 matches. She also won in Paris last year and clinched her first title of this season on Sunday in Linz.
In the quarterfinals, she will play her first match against fellow Russian Margarita Gasparyan, who upset ninth-seeded Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-2, 6-3.
Sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic kept her hopes alive for a place at the season-ending WTA finals with a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7) win over Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru Tuesday.
Fifth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain also stayed in the hunt by defeating Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-4, 7-5 in a second-round match.
In the men’s competition, sixth-seeded Borna Coric was upset by Evgeny Donskoy of Russia, ranked No. 118 in the world, who only faced one break point against the Croatian.
Trailing 4-1 in the third set, Dulgheru took the next four games and hung on to force the match into a tiebreaker, where she took a 4-1 lead. She then squandered a match point by double faulting at 6-5. Pliskova wrapped up the match in 2 hours, 39 minutes on her second match point.
Pavlyuchenkova held on for a 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 victory over Monica Niculescu of Romania.
Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, the eighth seed, and ninth-seeded Kristina Mladenovic also won Tuesday.
Among the seeded men to advance Tuesday was fifth-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, who was up 6-1 against Pere Riba when the Spaniard retired with a right leg injury. Eighth-seeded Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan moved into the second round with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Russia’s Andrey Rublev.
Sock, Baghdatis through
American Jack Sock and Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus advanced to the second round of the Stockholm Open with hard-fought wins Tuesday, while Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen ended his singles career with a defeat against Nicolas Almagro.
Seventh-seeded Sock hit 11 aces to beat Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-3 for a second-round match against Fernando Verdasco of Spain.
The 2009 champion Baghdatis was taken to a first-set tiebreaker before beating Sam Querrey of the United States 7-6 (2), 6-1 in a match lasting 77 minutes. He now faces fourth-seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia.
Lucky loser Almagro beat Nieminen, making his 16th straight appearance in Stockholm, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
Also, eighth-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg saved eight of 10 break points and hit 16 aces in a 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-1 win over qualifier Mischa Zverev of Germany. Steve Darcis of Belgium defeated Adrian Mannarino of France 7-6 (4), 6-4.
Hawaii to host Fed Cup tennis for 1st time
Hawaii will host Fed Cup matches for the first time when the United States faces Poland on Feb. 6-7.
The US Tennis Association announced Tuesday that the countries will have their 2016 first-round meeting in World Group II at Kailua Kona, Hawaii.
The matches will be played on an outdoor hard court.
Hawaii is the 16th state to host the Fed Cup. It previously held Davis Cup matches in 1992.
The US has a 3-0 Fed Cup record against Poland. The winner this time will advance to the World Group playoff in April, with a chance to get to the main tier of the event in 2017.
