Top seed David Ferrer was dumped out of the China Open yesterday, while on the women’s side home favorite Zheng Jie cruised through to the quarter-finals.
Elsewhere on day four of the tournament, defending women’s champion Agnes Szavay lost in straight sets, but second seed Ana Ivanovic and last year’s men’s champion Fernando Gonzalez advanced.
Ferrer, playing his first match in Beijing, lost to world No. 92 Dudi Sela of Israel 6-3, 6-3, in just 70 minutes.
PHOTO: AP
Sela took advantage of a string of unforced errors from the racket of the world No. 5, part of a strong Spanish contingent in Beijing, winning comfortably.
“He played better than me and he fought more than me. I didn’t fight a lot because psychologically I am not in a good moment now,” Ferrer said.
“Maybe I was a little bit tired because I didn’t sleep very well for two nights,” said Ferrer, who helped Spain reach the Davis Cup final at the weekend with a win over Andy Roddick, the second seed at the China Open.
PHOTO: AFP
Roddick qualified for the last eight with a 6-4, 6-3 win over compatriot Brendan Evans, ranked 187 in the world.
Meanwhile, Zheng followed up her first round victory over 10th-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama.
Zheng, who will play Ivanovic in the quarter-finals, beat the Serbian on the way to the Wimbledon semi-finals this year, but she said it would be tough to repeat the feat.
“Ana is a really good player. I won at Wimbledon and that brought me more confidence but there is a difference between a grass court and a hard court,” she said.
“I just want to try my best and let the crowd see an exciting match,” said Zheng, the only Chinese player left in the men’s or women’s draws.
Ivanovic, who beat France’s Alize Cornet 6-1, 7-6 (7/1), said she was confident she could reclaim the No. 1 ranking, currently held by Serena Williams.
Speaking about her upcoming clash with Zheng, she said: “It’s going to be a tough match, but I love challenges and she’s a home player.”
Chile’s Gonzalez, the men’s No. 3 seed, struggled in the first set against Japan’s Go Soeda but eventually won through to the quarter-finals 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.
In other results yesterday, Spain’s former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero beat compatriot and No. 5 seed Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-4.
Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova beat eighth seed Anna Chakvetadze, while Germany’s Bjorn Phau put out men’s eighth seed Sam Querrey and Hungary’s Szavay lost to Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, Tommy Robredo and Rainer Schuettler also advanced.
■ THAILAND OPEN
AFP, BANGKOK
France’s Nicolas Mahut upset Finnish fifth seed Jarkko Nieminen in the Thailand Open yesterday, beating him 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to win a spot in the quarter-finals.
Mahut, the No. 74, joined compatriots Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the second-seeded Australian Open finalist, and No. 4 Gael Monfils in the last eight.
Among the five French who began the week at the Impact arena, only Julien Benneteau and Fabrice Santoro have lost so far.
In other play, Swedish sixth seed Robin Soderling beat Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-1, 6-3, while top seed Novak Djokovic was to open in the second round against Simon Stadler of Germany.
Mahut, 26, came to Thailand with confidence from a Challenger title in Orleans. The Marseille quarter-finalist, who was 40th in the ATP in February, duplicated his quarter-final last year in Bangkok.
Mahut took a 3-1 lead over No. 33 Nieminen in the final set only to lose the advantage a game later as the Finn broke back for 2-3.
But Mahut held his nerve to serve out the upset on the first of three match points and claim his 15th win of the season. He improved to 2-2 against Nieminen, who has previously had two semi-finals and a quarter-final finish at Bangkok.
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