Cibulkova beats No. 1 seed at Moscow

MOSCOW, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Dominika Cibulkova eliminated top-seeded Vera Zvonareva during quarterfinal play Friday at the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament in Moscow.

Cibulkova, seeded eighth, beat Zvonareva 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a match that took nearly 3 hours. With other results Friday, Cibulkova is the only seeded player to make it to the semifinals in Moscow.

Cibulkova landed just half of her first serves and lost her serve four times but had a total of five breaks over the last two sets in claiming the win. Zvonareva lost only nine points in five service games of the first set but won barely half of the points on serve the rest of the way.

Cibulkova will go against Elena Vesnina in Friday's semifinals. Vesnina advanced in a walkover when third-seeded Marion Bartoli was unable to play due to illness. That also ended Bartoli's hope of an automatic invitation to next week's WTA Championships.

Kaia Kanepi was a 6-1, 6-2 winner over sixth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova even though she dropped serve twice. However, she won 63 percent of the points when receiving and had six breaks in seven games.

Also Friday, Lucie Safarova topped Vera Dushevina 6-4, 6-4 in earning a semifinal slot opposite Kanepi.

Vesnina owns a 3-1 series record versus Cibulkova, although they haven't played since 2009. Safarova is 4-1 lifetime against Kanepi.