Zvonareva crashes out

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:53

Zvonareva, ranked seven in the world, had not met the 126th-ranked Bulgarian before and the defeat has left the Russian as first alternate for the end-of-season Race to Doha.

Zvonareva went into the match ninth in the Race to Doha rankings but Jelena Jankovic claimed the final spot in the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships next week, with the second-seeded Serbian winning 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 against the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova in Moscow.

In the match with Pironkova, Russian Zvonareva could only win two games, losing 6-0 6-2 to her unheralded opponent.

There was home joy for Maria Kirilenko, who defeated Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-4 6-3, while Alisa Kleybanova beat fellow Russian Evgeniya Rodina 6-1 6-2, Russia’s Vera Dushevina won 3-6 6-4 6-3 against Hungary’s Agnes Szavay and Italy’s Francesca Schiavone beat Romania’s Monica Niculescu 6-2 7-5.

Janko Tipsarevic, the sixth seed, progressed in the men’s singles after Belgium’s Christophe Rochus retired with the Serbian leading 6-4 2-1 in their second round clash.

The United States’ Robby Ginepri defeated Spain’s Marcel Granollers 7-6 (7/5) 6-0, Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin was a 6-3 6-4 winner over the United States’ Wayne Odesnik and Ukraine’s Iliya Marchenko beat Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev 6-1 1-6 6-4.

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