Alexandrova wins as Russians lead the way in St. Petersburg

Russian players continued their dominance at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Wednesday as Ekaterina Alexandrova, Vera Zvonareva and Svetlana Kuznetsova all booked their places in the quarterfinals.

The top-seeded Alexandrova won 6-3, 6-4 against Tereza Martincova after twice coming from a break down in the second set. She will play either fellow Russian Margarita Gasparyan or Czech Katerina Siniakova.

Zvonareva upset third-seeded Fiona Ferro to reach her first tour quarterfinal since 2019. The 36-year-old Zvonareva, a former Wimbledon finalist, needed 3 hours, 13 minutes to wrap up a 6-7 (6), 7-5, 7-6 (2) win.

Zvonareva will face an all-Russian quarterfinal against either fifth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or qualifier Anastasia Gasanova, who beat Katarina Zavatska 6-2, 6-7 (6), 7-5 in their first-round match.

Kuznetsova advanced with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Wang Xinyu, who double-faulted twice in a row to give her opponent match point.

Kuznetsova will face Romania's Jaqueline Cristian, whho beat Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 7-6 (9) in the only last-16 match not to feature a Russian player. Cristian reached her first career tour quarterfinal after converting her fifth match point against the 2017 French Open champion in a match which finished after 1 a.m. local time.

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