Dementieva dumps Hingis

Martina Hingis struggled from start to finish

Martina Hingis has suffered a shock straight sets defeat at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

The top seed and defending champion lost to Russia's Elena Dementieva 6-2 6-2 in the quarter-finals.

Hingis held her serve only once in the first set and was broken four times in the second in a match that lasted only one hour and 10 minutes.

For Dementieva it was a case of sweet revenge after losing to Hingis at the same stage of the tournament last year.

"What can be better than to beat the world's best player," said an elated Dementieva, who considered pulling out of her previous match because of a shoulder injury.

"I've been waiting for this rematch for a very long time," the eighth seed added following her first ever victory over Hingis.

For her part Hingis was gracious in defeat.

Dementieva takes the plaudits from her home crowd

"When I first played her at the Australian Open years ago, I knew she would be a very good player, and today she proved that," Hingis said.

"I had my chances in all the games as most of them went to deuce, but she just played better on game points."

An early example of the Swiss player's inability to close out the big points came when Dementieva held a 3-0 lead in the first set.

In the longest game of the match, Hingis failed to convert three breaks before her opponent finally held after seven deuces.

"That was the deciding moment in the first set," Dementieva reflected. "If you give her a chance to get into the match, it's almost impossible to stop her."

Dementieva will meet her compatriot Anastasia Mysinka in the last four.

The Russian wild card beat Austria's Barbara Schett 6-4 6-2.

In the other quarter-finals, sixth-seeded Silvia Farina Elia beat 18-year-old Czech Daja Bedanova 1-6 7-6 6-4.

In the other semi-final she will take on the fifth seed, Jelena Dokic, who beat Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-2 6-0.