• Kremlin Cup

Chakvetadze slays Li in Moscow

Elena Vesnina kept her focus to beat Flavia Pennetta © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Profile: Anna Chakvetadze | Li Na | Flavia Pennetta

Li Na became the latest seed to tumble out of the Kremlin Cup, as home favourite Anna Chakvetadze thrilled the Moscow crowd with a 6-4 6-2 win.

World No. 11 Li arrived in Russia as the No. 3 seed and was expected to make giant strides, but she could never get to grips with Chakvetadze and followed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova out of the event.

Li had her right knee heavily strapped, but it did not seem to restrict her movement around the court. At times she struck the ball beautifully, but all too often she made mistakes from the baseline. In contrast, Chakvetadze produced consistent play and the ploy of keeping the ball alive reaped dividends.

Chakvetadze's serve was somewhat shaky, as she got just 39% of first serves in during the first set, but Li was unable to cash in and the Chinese was broken on three occasions herself to surrender the set.

The Russian's serve was much improved in the second set, she did not offer up a break point, and it allowed her to attack her opponent. Li did little to kelp her own cause as she won just two points behind her own second serve and Chakvetadze was able to power into round two.

Elena Vesnina pulled off a notable shock with a 6-4 2-6 6-2 win over Flavia Pennetta in the first round.

Pennetta came into the tournament as the No. 5 seed but was given an early indication of Vesnina's quality as the Russian claimed two breaks of serve to take the set.

The Italian rallied in the second set, upping her first-serve percentage from 46% to 58%, and this greater quality on serve put the pressure back on her opponent. Vesnina could not match Pennetta and the Italian broke on three occasions to level the match. But just as it appeared she had weathered the storm, Vesnina ran through four games without reply.

Pennetta's efforts in the final set were summed up when she threw an awful smash into the net at 4-1 down, after Vesnina had worked wonders to retrieve the ball out wide. And the Italian bowed out with a whimper as Vesnina broke again to seal victory.

Andrea Petkovic recovered from being bageled in the first set to claim a 0-6 7-5 6-0 win over Olga Govortsova, while Sara Errani beat Olga Savchuk 6-3 6-4 and Vera Dushevina stormed past Ekaterina Makarova 7-5 6-0.

Sixth seed Maria Kirilenko moved into the second round with a solid 6-2 6-2 win over Alexandra Dulgheru, while No. 7 seed Alisa Kleybanova had to dig deep for her 6-2 6-7(4) 7-6(1) victory over Lucie Safarova.

At the Luxembourg Open, top seed Elena Dementieva was pushed all the way by China's Shuai Peng.Despite eight double faults, the Russian booked her place in the second round with a 7-5 7-6(3) victory.

It was a day without major upsets in Luxembourg, with safe progress made by all the seeded players in action on Tuesday. Second seed Aravane Rezai edged to a 6-4 6-4 win over German qualifier Mona Barthel, while fifth seed Daniela Hantuchova sealed her place in round two with a 7-5 6-1 win over Jill Craybas.

There were also wins for Julia Goerges, Jarmila Groth and Kirsten Flipkens.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.