Azarenka cruises into Kremlin semi

Second seed Victoria Azarenka reached the Kremlin Cup semi-finals with a 6-1 6-3 thrashing of home hope Alisa Kleybanova on Friday.

The powerful Belarussian, known for her loud grunting on the court, dispatched the seventh-seeded Russian in less than 100 minutes to set up a match today with Spanish eighth seed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who eliminated Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 6-3.

The second women's semi-final will be an all-Russian affair, with the sixth seed Maria Kirilenko facing unseeded Vera Dushevina.

Kirilenko overpowered Kazakh teenager Zarina Diyas 6-1 6-2, while Dushevina edged out Russian compatriot Anna Chakvetadze 6-3 7-6.

On the men's side, the seeds continued to fall, with fifth-seeded Czech Radek Stepanek becoming the latest casualty after being upset 6-4 7-6 by Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas, who sent the top seed, Nikolay Davydenko, crashing out of the tournament in the second round.

Cuevas now takes on in-form Serbian Viktor Troicki, who followed Thursday's victory over third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with a 6-2 6-1 thrashing of Argentina's Horacio Zeballos. Fourth-seeded Cypriot Macos Baghdatis, making his Moscow debut, avoided an early exit when he saved three set-points in the second-set tiebreaker to beat Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-2 7-6 in the last match on centre court.

Baghdatis, the highest men's seed left at number four, faces unseeded Denis Istomin in Saturday's semi-final after the Uzbek eliminated the last remaining Russian in the men's draw. He beat surprise 2008 winner Igor Kunitsyn 6-2 6-4.