Kuznertsova creams Arvidsson

Moscow - Two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova has advanced to the quarter-finals of the Kremlin Cup by beating beating Sofia Arvidsson 6-2, 7-5 on Wednesday.

"I felt myself much better today and was more relaxed on the court," Kuznetsova said.

"Yet, I was hurrying a bit and wanted to play more aggressive, thus making more mistakes.

"But I can say that now, by the end of the season, I play much better."

In the men's second round, defending champion Andreas Seppi broke Paolo Lorenzi twice in the second set to win 6-3, 6-2.

"I think I played a solid match today performing very aggressive tennis," Seppi said.

"It was a good start of the tournament for me."

In the quarter-finals, the second-seeded Seppi will face Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who ousted Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-5, 7-5.

Earlier, Alisa Kleybanova advanced to her first quarterfinal since being treated for cancer, beating the sixth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6 (2), 6-4.

The 24-year-old Russian was ranked as high as 20th, but after missing much of the last two seasons because of her illness is now 254th.

She resumed her career in May and won a challenger event before returning to the WTA Tour in Toronto in August.

"I always liked to play with Carla and I knew it would be a tough match today," Kleybanova said.

"But I think that today I played more accurate on key moments and that's why I won."

Kleybanova was diagnosed with blood cancer and underwent chemotherapy until December 2011.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who is looking for her third title of the season, beat Russian compatriot Maria Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-3 to reach her seventh quarter-final.

Results from the third day of the ATP and WTA Kremlin Cup on Wednesday (x denotes seeding):

Men's singles:

Second round:
Karen Khachanov (RUS) bt Janko Tipsarevic (SRB x3) 6-4, 6-4
Andrey Golubev (KAZ) bt Horacio Zeballos (ARG x6) 6-3, 6-4
Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) 7-5, 7-5
Andreas Seppi (ITA x2) bt Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) 6-3, 6-2

First round:
Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS) bt Adrian Mannarino (FRA x8) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
Ivo Karlovic (CRO) bt Denis Kudla (USA) 6-2, 6-3
Denis Istomin (UZB x5) bt Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS) 6-0, 2-6, 6-1

Women's singles:

Second round:
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) bt Maria Kirilenko (RUS x3) 6-3, 6-3
Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) bt Carla Suarez (ESP x6) 7-6 (7/2), 6-4
Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x8) bt Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) 6-2, 7-5

First round:
Samantha Stosur (AUS x7) bt Kaia Kanepi (EST) 6-3, 6-1