Svetlana Kuznetsova closing in on Johanna Konta's WTA Finals spot

Svetlana Kuznetsova boosted her hopes of securing a place at the season-ending WTA Finals by moving into the last eight of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

The Russian top seed and defending tournament champion defeated Alize Cornet of France 6-4 7-5.

Kuznetsova is currently in 10th place on the Road to Singapore rankings and so needs to win the Moscow title again to edge out Great Britain's Johanna Konta.

Earlier, number three seed Carla Suarez Navarro saw her chances of making the eight-player showpiece event end when the Spaniard was forced to retire from her second-round match against Daria Gavrilova of Australia, trailing 6-4 3-0.

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Elsewhere on Tuesday, there were also wins for fourth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine who beat Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva 6-2 6-2, while eighth seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina defeated compatriot Ekaterina Makarova 6-4 6-1.

However, number five seed Elena Vesnina is out after the Russian lost 7-5 6-0 against Germany's Julia Goerges.

Timea Babos of Hungary, the ninth seed, secured a match against Kuznetsova with a 6-1 6-4 win over France's Kristina Mladenovic while Croatian Ana Konjuh progressed via a walkover after her Russian opponent Anna Blinkova was forced to withdraw.

Seventh seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova then saw off Jelena Jankovic 6-1 6-4 to secure a quarter-final place against Gavrilova.

Top seed Petra Kvitova reached the quarter-finals of the Luxembourg Open despite dropping the opening set to Varvara Lepchenko.

Kvitova fights back to beat Lepchenko and reach last eight

Having lost the first set 6-4, Kvitova would surrender only three games across the final two sets.

Number two seed Caroline Wozniacki needed three sets to progress as she eventually saw off Sabine Lisicki of Germany 3-6 6-2 6-3.

Third seed Kiki Bertens is also through after beating Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-3 6-1, along with number eight seed Johanna Larsson of Sweden, who saw off Germany's Mona Barthel 6-1 6-4.

However, fourth seed Caroline Garcia of France is out following a 6-1 6-1 defeat by German Andrea Petkovic while qualifier Lauren Davis marched on courtesy of a 2-6 6-4 6-3 triumph over Karolina Pliskova.

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