Fifth seed Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain advanced to the Kremlin Cup quarter-finals with a straight-sets victory over Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in Moscow on Tuesday.
World No.14 Suarez-Navarro chalked up a 6-4 7-5 win in one hour 46 minutes to keep alive her chances of obtaining one of the remaining spots in the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore.
"I've lost all of my previous meetings with her but I've learned from that defeats," Suarez-Navarro said.
Meanwhile, sixth seed Czech Karolina Pliskova, who needs to win the tournament to book a place in the WTA Finals, battled into the second round after a tough three-setter with Alexandra Dulghery of Romania 6-4 5-7 7-6 (9/7).
In the ATP section of the tournament, the fifth seed Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas beat Spanish qualifier Pere Riba, while Russia's wild card Evgeny Donskoy upset the 18-year-old Croatian Borna Coric in straight sets.
