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Moscow : Serbian Jelena Jankovic, who regained her position as the world number one tennis player in the WTA rankings earlier in October, grabbed her third WTA trophy in as many weeks by winning the Kremlin Cup final in Moscow against Russia's Vera Zvonareva on October 12 2008.
Jankovic won in two sets 6-2, 6-4. Zvonareva had a slow start and quickly lost the first set, but put up a stiffer some resistance in the second set, encouraged by home crowd. Jankovic would not be denied, however, and won her third tournament in a row in one hour and 27 minutes.
At end-September she won the China Open, following it up with the Porsche Grand Prix in Germany a week later to climb to the top of the WTA rankings. All her final wins came over Russian players, with Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated in Beijing and Nadia Petrova in Stuttgart.
"It was very tough to win as Vera never gives up. She forced me to play my best tennis to win today, I feel great as the world's number one and really enjoy it,” Jankovic was quoted by BBC Sport after the game.
Unfortunately, October 12 was not a good day for both of Bulgaria's top young tennis hopes, Tsvetana Pironkova and Grigor Dimitrov.
Pironkova, aged 21, who is already the best ranked Bulgarian female player at 44th in the WTA ranking, lost her second-round match of the Zurich hard clay tournament. Sixth-seeded Pironkova lost to world number 59 Petra Kvitova from the Czech Republic in three sets (2-6, 6-3, 3-6). The win moved Kvitova to the 57th positions in the ranking.
Dimitrov, the winner of junior tournaments of Wimbledon and the US Open this year, lost his first-round match at the Mutua Madrileña Masters tournament in Madrid. Frenchman Florent Serra, ranked 64th, got the better of Dimitrov, aged 17, in two straight sets (6-3, 6-3). The loss cost Dimitrov two spots in the ATP ranking and he is currently world number 480.
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