Jelena Jankovic gets spot in season-ending WTA final after Zvonareva loses at Kremlin Cup

Jankovic qualifies for WTA final, wins in Moscow

MOSCOW — Qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova upset top-seeded Vera Zvonareva 6-0, 6-2 Thursday in the second round of the Kremlin Cup, sending Jelena Jankovic to the season-ending WTA Championships.

Jankovic, who is five points ahead of Zvonareva, will fill the final spot at the tournament in Doha, Qatar. Jankovic, the defending champion at the Kremlin Cup, defeated Lucie Safarova 7-6 (5), 6-3 later Thursday to reach the quarterfinals.

“I was really happy when I heard that I’d made it to Doha,” Jankovic said. “It was very important for me.”

Serena and Venus Williams, Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka have already qualified for the championships and skipped the event in Moscow. Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska will travel to Doha as alternates.

The ninth-ranked Jankovic was a break down in the first set but broke back to even it at 5-5. Safarova double-faulted on match point to hand Jankovic the win.

In the quarterfinals, Jankovic will play Alisa Kleybanova of Russia. Pironkova will face Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine.

Earlier, Maria Kirilenko of Russia defeated Aleksandra Wozniak 6-4, 6-3. In the quarterfinals, Kirilenko will face eighth-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy, who defeated Monica Niculescu 6-2, 7-5.

In the men’s tournament, Robby Ginepri of the United States advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Marcel Granollers 7-6 (5), 6-0.

“It’s very exciting for me to reach the quarterfinals, especially because I haven’t got this far in a lot of tournaments this year,” Ginepri said. “It was good that I could follow up the great win over Igor (Andreev) with a very solid match.”

Evgeny Korolev ended Marat Safin’s 12th attempt to win his hometown event, defeating the former No. 1 player and two-time Grand Slam champion 6-4, 7-6 (4) in an all-Russian second-round match.

Safin plans to retire at the end of the season.