Top seed Janko Tipsarevic avoided an upset to eventually cruise past Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn 6-7, 6-1, 6-0 and into the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup.
The Serbian faces Dmitry Tursunov there after the Russian dispatched France’s Julien Benneteau 6-3, 7-6.
But there was humiliation for Ukraine’s No. 3 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov, ranked 17 in the world, who was beaten in straight sets by Jeremy Chardy, who is almost 100 places lower, 6-3, 7-6 (6).
The 24-year-old Frenchman’s reward is a quarterfinal against Philipp Kohlschreiber, who overcame seventh seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6, 6-3.
The other two quarterfinals see Nikolai Davydenko, the fourth seed, face Michael Berrer of Germany and Serbia’s No. 2 seed Viktor Troicki play Alex Bogomolov Jr.
In the women’s draw, France’s Marion Bartoli kept her quest for a place in the season-ending WTA championships in Istanbul alive as she dismantled Russia’s Ksenia Pervak 6-1, 6-1.
Bartoli needs to win the tournament to collect enough tour points to overtake Agnieszka Radwanska after the Pole unexpectedly lost to the Czech Lucie Safarova on Wednesday. Radwanska would have sealed her place had she won.
Next up for Bartoli, the world No. 11, is a quarterfinal against Russia’s Elena Vesnina, who ousted compatriot Ekaterina Ivanova on Thursday 6-3, 6-4.
Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, meanwhile, earned a last-eight match against home favorite and No. 1 seed Vera Zvonareva by beating Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 7-6, 6-2.
