Argentina's dreams of successfully defending the World Team Cup ended on Wednesday when it lost a tight rubber against a resilient US team. After splitting the singles rubbers on Tuesday, the Americans wrapped up the tie 24 hours later when Wayne Odesnik and Bobby Reynolds edged past Lucas Arnold Ker and Sebastian Prieto 6-3, 6-7, 10-7. In the other group tie, Sweden swept aside the challenge of the Czech Republic 3-0. Robin Soderling and Thomas Johansson teamed up to dispatch Michal Tabara and veteran Pavel Vizner 6-4, 7-5 in the doubles. Sweden and the United States will next face each other to decide which nation will advance to Saturday's final. In the Blue Group, Feliciano Lopez kept Spain's hopes of qualifying for the final alive by beating Russia's Igor Andreev 6-4, 6-4 to give his team an unassailable lead. Russia won a consolation point after Mikhail Youzhny and Dmitry Tursunov defeated Lopez and Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-4. In the group's other tie, Italy notched up two wins to reverse an overnight deficit against Germany for a 2-1 victory. Simone Bolelli squeezed past Nicolas Kiefer 7-6, 7-6, before combining with Potito Starace to beat the German doubles pairing of Philipp Petzschner and Christopher Kas 2-6, 6-3, 10-4. Dementieva advances Top-seeded Elena Dementieva beat Liana Ungur of Romania 6-2, 7-6 (4) Wednesday in the second round of the Istanbul Cup. The seventh-ranked Russian will play Jill Craybas of the United States in the third round of the clay-court tournament, a warm-up event for the French Open. The seventh-seeded Craybas advanced after beating Vania King of the United States 6-4, 6-2. Second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska also advanced, beating Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-0, 6-0, and third-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia defeated Marta Domachowska of Poland 6-2, 6-2. Petrova is to play sixth-seeded Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, who advanced by beating Aiko Nakamura of Japan 6-3, 6-3. Radwanska will next play Andreja Klepac of Slovenia, who beat Stephanie Dubois of Canada 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Peng stuns Bartoli Peng Shuai of China reach the quarterfinals of the Strasbourg International on Wednesday after top-seeded Marion Bartoli of France retired while trailing 6-1, 1-0 with a right wrist injury. Second-seeded Alona Bondarenko also won, beating Edina Gallovits of Romania 6-4, 6-4. Bondarenko, who broke her opponent's serve five times, next plays Timea Bacsinszky, who beat Yan Zi of China 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. Fourth-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia also advanced to the last eight. Pennetta defeated Stephanie Cohen-Aloro of France 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, while Srebotnik advanced by beating Tatiana Perebiynis of Ukraine 7-6 (4), 6-0. Tsonga in quarters Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Lamine Ouahab of Algeria 6-3, 6-2 Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Grand Prix Hassan II tournament. He will take on Santiago Ventura of Spain, who outlasted Rainer Schuettler of Germany 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. Second-seeded Gael Monfils of France was upset 6-3, 6-2 by Oscar Hernandez of Spain, while No. 5 Julien Benneteau of France reached the last eight with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Pablo Cuevas. Monaco moves up In Austria, defending champion Juan Monaco reached the second round of the Hypo Group International on Wednesday after Carlos Berlocq of Argentina retired with a thigh injury in the first set. The second-seeded Monaco twice broke Berlocq's serve to lead 4-1 before he quit. Monaco will next play Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic. Third-seeded Ivan Ljubicic advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Ivan Navarro of Spain 7-6 (3), 6-4. Ljubicic next plays Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain, who upset fifth-seeded Sam Querrey of the United States 6-1, 6-3 in the second round. Igor Kunitsyn of Russia upset fourth-seeded Mardy Fish 6-1, 6
