American Lindsay Davenport will be the new number-one women's tennis player in the world when the official WTA rankings come out next week. She gained enough points by advancing to the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Russian Dinara Safina.
Davenport will surpass Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo to claim the number-one spot for the fifth time, but her first since January 13, 2002.
Joining her in the round-of-eight were seventh-seeded fellow-American Venus Williams and number-three Anastasia Myskina and fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia.
In men's results Thursday, third seed Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia fought back from a first set loss to beat Belarus qualifier Vladimir Voltchkov, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6, while Greg Rusedski of Britain upset number-seven Filippo Volandri of Italy, 6-2, 6-4. Number-five Mikhail Youzhny of Russia was a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden. Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark needed three sets to overcome Igor Andreyev of Russia (7-6, 4-6, 6-1).