Former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic crashed out of the China Open yesterday, beaten by home favorite Zheng Jie in a marathon quarter-final clash.
In the men’s draw, defending champion and third seed Fernando Gonzalez lost to 137-ranked Bjorn Phau in three sets.
Ivanovic, the second seed in Beijing, lost 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-4 to her Wimbledon conqueror in a match lasting almost three hours.
PHOTO: AP
The French Open champion had fought her way back into the match, taking the second set despite an error-strewn display.
But China’s world No. 30 was quickly into her stride in the third set, breaking the Ivanovic serve in the first game. Despite further breaks for both players, the tenacious Zheng held her nerve to take the decider.
“She was playing really well. My first serve wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped for. I think that was the biggest difference,” Ivanovic said, adding she had not been aggressive enough with her returns.
PHOTO: AFP
Zheng, 25, who has three career WTA titles, shocked Ivanovic at Wimbledon, beating the then top seed in the third round before going on to reach the semi-finals.
Ivanovic is among a group of players behind current No. 1 Serena Williams chasing the top ranking, which also includes the top seed here, Jelena Jankovic.
But she has had a poor run, including her early exit at Wimbledon and a second round defeat at the US Open, and has also been hit by injuries.
PHOTO: AP
Zheng’s win means she has matched the best-ever performance by a Chinese player at this tournament and she will go on to meet Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semi-final.
Elsewhere on quarter-finals day in Beijing, men’s sixth seed Tommy Robredo was beaten convincingly 6-4, 6-1 by Israel’s world No. 92 Dudi Sela, who put out top seed David Ferrer in the previous round.
Sela, who will play Germany’s Rainer Schuettler in his first ATP tour semi-final, said he came into the Beijing tournament full of confidence after his team’s Davis Cup win over Peru at the weekend.
“He [Robredo] has much more experience than me, but I gave my best and I knew this moment I’m playing very good,” he said.
Schuettler beat French fourth seed Richard Gasquet 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Gasquet of France had encountered scant resistance in beating Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) of Taiwan 7-5, 6-1 on Thursday night.
Germany’s Phau, particularly impressive on the backhand side in his 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 over Gonzalez, came back strongly after conceding the second set, breaking the Chilean in the fifth game of the decider.
He will meet either top seed Andy Roddick or Spanish former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final four.
In other matches, Russia’s Vera Zvonareva beat Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, 6-0, 6-1 in just 51 minutes and Kuznetsova beat Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-4.
■KOREA OPEN
By Tony Phillips
Staff writer
Tawanese pair Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容) and Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) reached the semi-finals of the doubles at the Hansol Korea Open by beating unseeded French duo Pauline Parmentier and Camille Pin in straight sets yesterday.
Chuang and Hsieh breezed through the first set, taking it 6-1, before wrapping up the victory by winning the second set 6-4.
In another quarter-final match in Seoul yesterday, Russian third seeds Vera Dushevina and Maria Kirilenko defeated Japanese duo Ayumi Morita and Junri Namigata 6-0, 4-6, 10-6.
In the singles quarter-finals, No. 1 seed Kirilenko beat fifth seed Parmentier 6-3, 6-2, while US veteran Jill Craybas pulled off a surprise win against second-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer. Craybas took the first set 6-2 before wrapping things up by claiming the second 7-5.
Third seed Kaia Kanepi of Estonia downed Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-1, 6-4, while Samantha Stosur of Australia defeated Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-4.
■THAI OPEN
AFP, BANGKOK
French pair Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils will clash for the first time after straight set victories in the quarter-finals of the Thailand Open yesterday.
Australian Open finalist Tsonga, fresh from a Thai boxing session, beat Austria’s Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-2 in 55 minutes.
Tsonga overwhelmed Melzer in their match, firing a dozen aces and breaking the Austrian three times, showing a solid recovery after missing three months with knee surgery.
“It was an easy match,” Tsonga said.
“I played some good tennis, it was much better than my previous match. It’s good to reach the semi-finals,” he said.
Fourth seed Monfils ended German Philipp Petzschner’s run 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 to set-up a semi-final showdown with his compatriot. But Czech third seed Tomas Berdych spoiled a possible French hat-trick with his 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 victory over world No. 74 Nicolas Mahut, in the other quarter-final.
A win for second seed Tsonga could see a re-run of the Australian Open final in January, when he lost to world No. 3 Novak Djokovic.
Serbian top seed Djokovic faces a quarter-final against Sweden’s Robin Soderling, who is back on form after a straight-sets exit at the Beijing Olympics and US Open.
World No. 30 Monfils, a popular semi-finalist at Roland Garros last spring, reached his third ATP-level semi-final of the season as he stayed in the hunt for a spot at the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai in November.
Winning the Thailand title would catapult Monfils, whose only other title success came in Sopot three years ago, into the Top 20 ahead of Shanghai.
But Tsonga said he would not be doing Monfils any favours.
“We are friends but I will tell him to treat me like any other player — I will be doing the same,” the world No. 20 said. “It should be a good show, a very good match. I’m not surprised we French players are doing well. We have a group of five guys in the Top 30.”
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