Estonian world No. 43 Kaia Kanepi held her nerve in a final-set tiebreak to dump 12th-ranked Italian Francesca Schiavone out of the Kremlin Cup on Wednesday.
The upset of the tournament’s fourth seed Schiavone, the French Open finalist, sends Kanepi into the last 16 in Moscow, where she will face Russian sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova or Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova.
The match, the pick of the tournament so far and lasting nearly three hours, saw the Estonian win a tense final-set tiebreak 9-7 to win a rollercoaster encounter 6-4, 5-7, 7-6.
This is the third major surprise sprung by the Kremlin Cup after Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, the fifth seed and past winner, lost to Russian qualifier Ekaterina Ivanova 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, and home player Vera Dushevina sent Italy’s Roberta Vinci packing 7-6, 6-4.
Top seed Vera Zvonareva had no trouble in ousting Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-1 to play either Klara Zakopalova or Polona Hercog in the last 16.
Slovenia’s Hercog, the world No. 36, earlier beat 20th-ranked Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, the No. 8 seed, 6-3, 7-6.
The men’s side has stayed more or less true to form, with No. 2 seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki downing Pere Riba of Spain 6-4, 6-4.
Troicki meets American fifth seed Alex Bogomolov, Jr., who conquered Serbian Dusan Lajovic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the last 16.
Home fourth seed Nikolai Davydenko was to play compatriot Teymuraz Gabashvili later.
