Kremlin Cup Tennis: Sela goes down, but not without a fight

The 23-year-old pushed Mathieu (23) to a third set tiebreaker, but failed to win a single point in the breaker and crashed out of the $1 million tournament.

By ALLON SINAI
Sela 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
Sela 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
Dudi Sela just missed out on a place in the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow on Thursday, losing 6-7 (3), 7-5, 7-6 (0) to France's Paul-Henri Mathieu. The 23-year-old, who is now ranked No. 70 in the world, pushed Mathieu (23) to a third set tiebreaker, but failed to win a single point in the breaker and crashed out of the $1 million tournament. In other matches yesterday, top-ranked Jelena Jankovic rallied from a set down to beat Russian qualifier Vera Dushevina 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-2 Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals. Also advancing was seventh-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia, who routed Daniela Hantuchova 6-1, 6-0, and Nadia Petrova of Russia, who was a set and 3-2 up when Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki retired with breathing problems. In the quarterfinals, Petrova will face defending champion Elena Dementieva. In the men's draw, top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko easily proceeded, beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-1, 6-1. The 23-year-old Jankovic took the No. 1 ranking from Serena Williams on Monday after winning back-to-back titles in the China Open and the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany. Jankovic will retain her top ranking next week regardless of the results in Moscow because Williams, runner-up in Moscow last year, pulled out because of injury. Jankovic next plays Flavia Pennetta of Italy, who beat Russian wild card Ekaterina Makarova 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. The fifth-ranked Davydenko reached his first quarterfinal in six events, since winning a third title this season in Warsaw in July. The Russian will next face his compatriot, seventh-seeded Marat Safin, who beat Julien Benneteau of France 6-4, 0-6, 6-2. Davydenko beat Safin in the final in 2006 for his second title in Moscow. He also won in 2004 and last season. The defending champion won four straight games in the first set and five straight in the second to close out the match in 56 minutes. Safin took a 5-2 lead in the decisive set and served the match out with an ace. In other second-round matches, eighth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic lost to Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-4 in an all-Serbian match, and Igor Kunitsyn of Russia ousted Robby Ginepri of the United States 6-4, 6-3. Germany's Mischa Zverev beat Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 to advance to his fourth quarterfinal this season. On Wednesday in other tennis action, Andy Ram and Max Mirnyi advanced to the semifinals of the doubles tournament in Vienna, defeating Italians Simone Bolelli and Andrea Seppi 4-6, 6-2, 10-4. The Vienna tournament is the first in five years in which Ram isn't playing alongside Yoni Erlich. Erlich's elbow injury has ruled him out for the next couple of weeks and Ram decided to play with Mirnyi, a former doubles world No. 1, until Erlich regains fill fitness. AP contributed to this report