Troicki leads 3 upset winners in Moscow

MOSCOW, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- No. 3-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and two other seeded players were eliminated Thursday in second-round play of the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament in Moscow.

Viktor Troicki rallied for his second consecutive three-set victory in beating Tsonga 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Troicki got two of his three service breaks in the final set.

No. 6-seeded Andrey Golubev and seventh-seeded Sergiy Stakhovsky were also defeated Thursday, leaving No. 4 Marcos Baghdatis and fifth-seeded Radek Stepanek the only seeded players left heading to the quarterfinals of the $1 million tournament.

Igor Kunitsyn ousted Golubev 6-5, 7-5 behind five service breaks while Alexandr Dolgopolov topped Stakhovsky 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), winning 40 percent of the points while receiving.

Also Thursday, Horacio Zeballos got by Victor Crivoi 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) and Denis Istomin beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Mathieu was placed in the draw when second-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, the tournament's defending champion, withdrew because of a viral infection.

Friday's quarterfinals have Stepanek playing Pablo Cuevas, Troicki going against Zeballos, Baghdatis meeting Dolgopolov and Kunitsyn facing Istomin.