By Alexia Krause
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| Sofia Arvidsson puts Mario Bartoli on wait for WTA Championships |
MOSCOW, Russia (TheSportsNEXT) October 18, 2012: Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden stunned Marion Bartoli of France in straight sets by 6-3 6-0 on Wednesday to storm her way into quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.
The loss was a huge blow for world number 10 Marion Bartoli who had to win this match to stay at a better position as compared to Samantha Stosur of Australia and now will stay as the second alternate at the season-ending WTA Championships starting next week in Istanbul.
Sofia Arvidsson looked in good shape right from the start and broke her French opponent thrice before dropping service a couple of times. She excelled in the second set and gave Bartoli no chance of making a comeback into the match.
The Frenchwoman didn’t help her chances either as she had six double-faults in the second set alone.
Sofia Arvidsson is bidding to win her second title of the current season after winning title in Memphis earlier this year.
Sofia will face either seventh seeded Maria Kirilenko or Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup.
Talking to reporters after her impressive victory, Sofia Arvidsson said, “I am very happy to win this match to reach the quarterfinals. Marion is a great competitor, a top-10 player, and I knew I would have to be at my best. My strategy was to focus on the way I wanted to play and move her around the court”.
On the other hand, Marion Bartoli showed her disappointment on losing the big match for her chances of qualification in the season ending WTA Championships. She told media persons, “It would have been better for me to come to Istanbul as the first substitute, but it's always very rewarding for me to get a chance to go there. Today my body just refused to execute what my mind was telling it to do. The surface here is very slow and it didn't fit my play well”.
In the other matches played at the Kremlin Cup on Wednesday, Klara Zakopalova advanced into the last eight by getting the better of eighth-seeded Lucie Safarova by 6-4 6-4 in all-Czech match.
Local favorites Valeria Solovieva defeated Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-4 6-2 to cruise into second round, while Maria Kirilekno uprooted fellow Russian Elena Vesnina by 7-5 6-1 in her first round match.
In the men's second-round action on Wednesday, eighth-seeded Tatsuma Ito of Japan won a battle of nerves against Russian qualifier Konstantin Kravchuk with final score of 7-6 (7), 2-6, 6-3. In another match, Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic came from behind to topple fifth-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan by 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
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