Rafael Nadal made a dominant return to tennis after a two-month injury layoff, beating Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-0 in 78 minutes at the China Open yesterday.
Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray also advanced to the second round in Beijing, but in vastly different fashion. The top-ranked Djokovic improved to 20-0 at the China Open with a routine 6-2, 6-1 win over Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, while Murray battled for 2.5 hours to put away Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-2.
Nadal had not played a match since his surprising fourth-round exit at Wimbledon to Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios. The 14-time major winner withdrew from the US Open, citing a right-wrist injury, but he never looked in trouble against Gasquet, a semi-finalist at the 2013 US Open who has slumped to 22nd in the rankings this year.
Photo: AFP
In the women’s action, WTA Finals qualifiers Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep recorded straight-sets victories yesterday, but Singapore hopefuls Eugenie Bouchard and Agnieszka Radwanska were dumped out in second-round upsets.
Bouchard, who lost in the final of last week’s Wuhan Open, was beaten by unseeded German Sabine Lisicki 6-2 6-4, while Italian Roberta Vinci knocked out 2011 winner Radwanska 6-4 6-4.
The defeats left the Polish world No. 6 and seventh-ranked Bouchard waiting to book a qualifying spot at next month’s WTA’s season-ending championships in Singapore.
Photo: AFP
Russian Sharapova produced some bruising groundstrokes as she crushed Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-2 6-2, while Romanian Halep had some issues before overcoming Chinese wildcard Zhu Lin 7-5 6-4.
World No. 4 Sharapova now faces a third-round meeting with Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro. Halep’s win set up a clash with 15th seed Andrea Petkovic, the German having little trouble in ousting the US’ Madison Keys 6-2 6-3.
Former world number one Ana Ivanovic was another second round winner as she beat Swiss Romina Oprandi 6-4 6-2 on the Moon Court.
Venus Williams also advanced with a 6-4 6-3 victory over France’s Caroline Garcia, while 13th-ranked Czech Lucie Safarova beat German Mona Barthel 6-3 6-3.
Later, Venus’ sister Serena Williams cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.
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