Zvonareva loses at Kremlin Cup, sending Jankovic to season-ending WTA Championships

Zvonareva loses, Jankovic qualifies for WTA final

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, regardless of how she finishes at the Kremlin Cup.

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 go to Doha as alternates.

Jankovic was scheduled to play Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic later Thursday.

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.”