Earlier, Marion Bartoli of France withdrew from the
quarterfinals with an illness, handing Agnieszka Radwanska a spot in the
season-ending WTA finals.
In the men's quarterfinals, defending champion Viktor
Troicki of Serbia rallied from 4-love down in the third set and prevailed in a
tiebreaker to eliminate Alex Bogomolov Jr. of the United States 7-6 (6), 6-7
(1), 7-6 (1), while three-time winner here Nikolay Davydenko advanced to the
semifinals with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Michael Berrer of Germany.
Cibulkova, who was runner-up in Linz, Austria, last week,
played with her right leg bandaged after she aggravated a knee injury in the
previous match. Both players took medical timeouts in the third set — Zvonareva
to treat her shoulder and Cibulkova to have her leg massaged and retaped.
The 20th-ranked Slovak rallied from 5-3 down in the second
set to break the fifth-ranked Zvonareva in the 10th game and stay in the match.
Cibulkova said she lost the first set because she was not
aggressive enough on her second serve.
"In the second set I just said, OK, come on, you have
to play 100 percent and also to go for second serve. And you have nothing to
lose. And it just paid off," Cibulkova said.
Serving in the tenth game of the third set, the Russian
raced to 40-love up but could not finish and finally returned wide and long to
lose the game and the match.
"You cannot go 50-50, you should decide at the right
time," Zvonareva said. "Maybe I should have retired, because I'm to
play next week in Istanbul and then be back here for the Fed Cup." Zvonareva
said that she had played a good match but because of the pain in her shoulder
caused by an old injury and concerns about her upcoming matches she could
maintain concentration.
The third-seeded Bartoli, who has not dropped a set in six
matches, was scheduled to play Elena Vesnina of Russia in the first
quarterfinal but pulled out because of a viral illness.
"I think just my whole body needed a break,"
Bartoli said. "I really was trying till the end but yesterday during my
match I already felt not very good.
"I still have a bit of energy left, so it was enough
(to play), but early this morning I had so much pain in my whole body, on my
neck — I couldn't even warm up," she said.
Vesnina said it was the first time she had advanced by a
walkover at this stage of a tournament.
"It's really sad when you are not feeling good, not
very healthy," Vesnina said. "I saw her match yesterday, and she was
playing really well." The 64th-ranked Russian will play Cibulkova in the
semifinals.
Bartoli won her seventh career title in Osaka last weekend
and needed to win the title in Moscow to secure the last open spot for next
week's WTA Championships in Istanbul.
With Bartoli's withdrawal, Radwanska qualifies directly for
the event for the first time, despite losing in the second round in Moscow. She
was a substitute in 2008 and 2009.
Bartoli will travel to Istanbul and will be the first
alternate.
In early men's quarterfinals, the 133rd-ranked Jeremy Chardy
of France landed 11 aces to beat Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-4, 6-3 and
make it to the semifinals for the first time since winning his maiden title in
Stuttgart, Germany in July 2009.
