Maria Kirilenko upsets 3rd-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 6-3 in 1st round of Kremlin Cup

Kirilenko upsets No. 3 seed Radwanska in Moscow

MOSCOW — Maria Kirilenko of Russia upset third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-3, 6-3 Wednesday in the first round of the Kremlin Cup.

That means only two players — Jelena Jankovic and Vera Zvonareva — remain in contention for the last spot for next week’s season-ending WTA Championships in Doha.

Jankovic is five points ahead of Zvonareva for the final berth.

Kirilenko, ranked 61st, opened with a break and saved four break points in the eighth game. The 10th-ranked Radwanska dropped serve again to lose the first set. She called for a trainer to treat her left thigh, which was taped at the beginning of the match.

“I was trying because I was still in with a chance for qualifying for Doha,” Radwanska said. “But the surface is so slow here, you need to run a lot to win a point.”

Kirilenko broke decisively in the second game of the second set. She saved a break point in the seventh game before securing her first win in five appearances at her hometown tournament.

Fourth-seeded Flavia Pinetta of Italy was a set up and 3-0 down when she retired because of a knee injury against Agnes Szavay of Hungary.

Francesca Schiavone of Italy rallied to beat Spanish qualifier Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-3.

Earlier, qualifier Evgeniya Rodina beat sixth-seeded Elena Vesnina 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 in an all-Russian match.

On the men’s side, fifth-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay advanced to the quarterfinals, rallying to beat Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Seventh-ranked Nikolay Davydenko, who won the Shanghai Masters on Sunday, was scheduled to face Marat Safin in a first-round match.