Top seed Jankovic crashes out of Kremlin Cup

MOSCOW, (Reuters) - Top seed Jelena Jankovic crashed out of the Kremlin Cup at the first hurdle in a 6-1 6-2 thrashing by Kazakh teenager Zarina Diyas on Thursday.

Serbia’s former world number one, who had a bye in the first round, looked out of sorts from the start, committing numerous errors and winning only 43 percent of her first serves. She was beaten in less than an hour by the 268th-ranked Diyas.

The Kazakh qualifier, who turned 17 three days ago, was as surprised as everyone by her lopsided victory.

“I was very nervous before the match. She is a top player and I never played someone like her before,” Diyas said.

“But as the match progressed I started feeling more and more confident and my nerves were gone by the first set.”

Diyas, who had not won a tour match this year before this week, now takes on sixth-seeded Maria Kirilenko in Friday’s quarter-finals after the Russian whitewashed Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko 6-0 6-0 in the earlier match on centre court. Jankovic became the latest high-profile casualty at the annual ATP and WTA indoor tournament that had been already decimated by the withdrawals of top players, particularly on the women’s side.

Men’s top seed Nikolay Davydenko was beaten in his opening match while his Russian compatriot, champion and second seed Mikhail Youzhny, pulled out with a virus infection on Wednesday.

Russians Vera Zvonareva, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Sharapova as well as Italy’s 2009 champion Francesca Schiavone all pulled out in the runup to the event.