Today was a big day for Alisa Kleybanova – for the first time since coming back from the life-threatening Hodgkin’s lymphoma the Russian advanced to a WTA quarterfinal and it happened in her hometown of Moscow, at the Premier-level Kremlin Cup. As a 254th-ranked wildcard, Kleybanova upset sixth seed Carla Suarez Navarro, hitting 11 aces to her opponent’s zero and coming back from 4-2 down in the second set to win 7-6(2) 6-4.
Two more Russians advanced into the quarterfinals on Wednesday, while two fell in the second round: eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova advanced, while third seed Maria Kirilenko and Elena Vesnina went out. There was also one remaining first-round match, which saw seventh seed Samantha Stosur get past Kaia Kanepi 6-3 6-1.
Meanwhile in Luxembourg, Katarzyna Piter made her first WTA quarterfinal by beating Yanina Wickmayer 3-6 6-1 6-4, while eighth seed Bojana Jovanovski eliminated Hsieh Su-Wei 6-1 6-4 in the second round and Annika Beck upset fifth seed Lucie Safarova 6-2 4-6 6-4. In the two first-rounders of the day, seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard fell to Andrea Petkovic 2-6 7-5 6-1 and Kristina Mladenovic lost to Tereza Smitkova 7-5 6-1. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
