Vera Zvonareva loses at Dubai Championships

Vera Zvonareva and Francesca Schiavone were both eliminated in the third round of the Dubai Championships on Thursday.

Alisa Kleybanova beat Russian teammate Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2, while Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Schiavone 1-6, 6-0, 7-5.

Samantha Stosur of Australia also reached the quarterfinals, beating Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder 6-3, 6-4, while Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland defeated Marion Bartoli of France 6-3, 6-2 and Shahar Peer if Israel overcame a sluggish start to beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

The highly anticipated match between Schiavone and Kuznetsova lacked the drama of their Australian Open encounter in Melbourne which lasted nearly five hours and was the longest women’s Grand Slam singles match in the Open era. Schiavone won that fourth-round match.

After two quick sets that went opposite ways, Kuznetsova needed seven match points to win.

‘I said to myself, ‘Look, you still have it. You’re good enough. It’s just matter of closing the deal,’‘ Kuznetsova said. ‘I just cannot close it. It’s just one point, a stupid point, but it’s only one. I win like 101 during the match, and I can’t win just final one. It’s funny.’

Kleybanova had six aces against Zvonareva, an Australian Open semifinalist and runner-up at the US Open and Wimbledon.

‘Maybe the score looked easy, but the match wasn’t really easy today. We had a lot of fighting in many games,’ said Kleybanova, who has beaten Zvonareva twice before, the last time in 2009 in Tokyo.

‘When I walked on the court today to play against her, I believe that I can win and I am better,’ she said. ‘So my point was just to play my game, be aggressive. I didn’t make too many errors today, so everything worked well for me.’

Zvonareva, who reached the quarterfinals last year in Dubai, called the match one of her worst recent performances.

‘Definitely, it wasn’t my day today. I think I didn’t play too good,’ she said. ‘Too many unforced errors. Probably one of the worse matches in a while from my part.

‘She’s a tough opponent, so if you’re not playing at a high level, it’s very difficult to beat her.’