Seventh seed Vera Zvonareva progressed to the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup in her home Moscow with a dominant 6-1 6-0 victory over Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova. Also advancing was top seed Jelena Jankovic who beat Russian Vera Dushevina 6-7(6) 6-3 6-2.

Hantuchova scored only five points on Zvonareva’s serve! "I know that one can only have one or two such easy matches in a season," said the Russian.

Jankovic appeared to struggle with a hip injury, and could have lost in straight sets as the world No.77 Dushevina came from behind in the first set, and broke early in the second. But Jankovic stepped up a gear and defeated nervous Dushevina for a place in the quarterfinals.

Also progressing on Thursday were Nadia Petrova and Flavia Pennetta. Petrova's second-round opponent Caroline Wozniacki retired with breathing problems, while Italian Pennetta beat Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 3-6 6-4 6-4.

The quarterfinals are set: Jankovic vs. Pennetta, defending champion Dementieva vs. Petrova, Zvonareva vs. Cibulkova (the conqueror of Ana Ivanovic), and Kuznetsova vs. Safina. (via BBC, photos: Getty Images)

This hurts! Still no winning streak for former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic. The Serb suffered yet another early loss, this time to Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova.

The fourth-seeded Ivanovic had a first round bye, and was upset 3-6 6-2 7-6 (4) right away in the second round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, falling to the world No.20 Cibulkova.

To make things worse, Ivanovic had two match points in the 10th game of the deciding set, but failed to convert them.

More bad news for Ana's fans: At the 2008 Kremlin Cup, Ivanovic played her first doubles match in tournament play since June 2007. On Wednesday, after her singles defeat, she also lost in the doubles competition, paired with Italy's Francesca Schiavone. They were beaten 6-2 4-6 10-7 by top seeds and world No.1s Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the quarterfinals. (via Ana Ivanovic's website, photo: ivanovic-ana.com)

Sixth seed Venus Williams lost 6-4 2-6 6-4 to Italy’s Flavia Pennetta in the opening round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

Pennetta and Williams exhanged breaks in the first set. The world No.18 Pennetta broke decisively on her third chance in the ninth game. Williams broke twice in the second set, but dropped serve in the first game of the third set and never recovered.

With the victory at the Kremlin Cup Pennetta has improved her record against Williams to 3-1.

The top four seeds, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva and Ana Ivanovic, have byes into the second round. (source: AP, photo: Getty Images)

Soon-not-to-be world No.1 Serena Williams withdrew from the Kremlin Cup, which starts on Monday in Moscow, due to an ankle injury.

"My left ankle has been bothering me since the US Open and I need to take a break now to get it back to 100 percent," said the nine-time Grand Slam champion, who was a finalist last year in Moscow.

"I have played a lot this year and my body needs to recover. My goal is to try and get the No. 1 ranking back."

Besides Williams, world No.6 Maria Sharapova also won’t take part in the Kremlin Cup, as she will be missing the rest of the season because of her shoulder injury. However, the women's field is the strongest in the 19-year history of the $2.3 million with eight of the world's top 10 players participating. (source: ESPN, photo: Getty Images)

Elena Dementieva claimed her first Kremlin Cup title on Sunday with a 5-7 6-1 6-1 victory over fourth-seeded Serena Williams in their fifth career meeting.

This title has a special significance to the Russian, since it is her first title on home soil in her 11th Kremlin Cup appearance. Before she had lost two finals at the tournament in Moscow, in 2001 and 2004.

After losing the first set, world No.14 Dementieva came back strong, breaking Williams three times in each of the next two sets. During the match, Williams made 59 unforced errors to her opponent’s 31.

"She just played really unbelievable, she should play like that more often," said world No.7 Serena Williams.

"I'm not going to make excuses for myself. I played terrible. I had a feeling that almost every shot I hit, it was out."

Having won her eighth career title, Dementieva earned $182,000 and took her record against Williams to 1-4. (source: Reuters, photo via Yahoo)