3rd seed Bartoli takes winning start at Moscow

MOSCOW, Oct 21 (AFP): Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, third seed at the 1.5-million-dollar joint ATPWTA Kremlin Cup tournament, advanced into the last eight with a straight-set win over Russia's Ksenia Pervak here Thursday. The 27-year-old Bartoli, who needs to win the Kremlin Cup title to take the final spot in the year-ending WTA finale in Istanbul, won 6-1, 6-1 in her first ever meeting with Pervak. "It's never easy to win a WTA match though the scoreline says the opposite," said Bartoli, who enjoyed an opening round bye here. "Pervak was battling until the very end fighting tough even when the score was 6-1 and 5-0." "I tried not to think about a possibility to get a place in the Istanbul tournament during the match, keeping myself concentrated on the playing.