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October 2, 2012

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Azarenka cruises into second round

TOP-RANKED Victoria Azarenka and No. 2 Maria Sharapova both advanced to the second round of the China Open yesterday in Beijing.

Azarenka beat Alize Cornet of France 6-1, 6-0, while Sharapova defeated Simona Halep of Romania 7-5, 7-5.

Local hope Zheng Jie lost to Lara Arruabarrena Vecino of Spain 6-2, 6-4 while 10th seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark beat Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-2.

In second round matches, 11th seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia overcame American Varvara Lepchenko 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 and Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro upset 4th seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2.

Last week in Tokyo, Azarenka withdrew from the tournament after a bout of dizziness in the third round.

Azarenka has won four times this year, including the Australian Open. Sharapova won her first Grand Slam title in four years at the French Open.

In the first round of the men's draw, fourth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia, last year's runner-up, lost to Marius Copil of Romania 3-6, 6-7 (0), 6-4.

In Tokyo, second-seeded Tomas Berdych defeated Benoit Paire of France 6-1, 7-6 (6) in a first-round match in hot and humid conditions at the Japan Open yesterday.

Berdych used a powerful serve and strong play from the baseline to win in 1 hour, 44 minutes under a blazing sun at Ariake Colosseum.

The Czech player raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set, breaking Paire in the second and fourth games. Paire finally held serve to make it 5-1, but Berdych closed out the set in the next game on serve at love.

"I thought it might be a touch match," Berdych said. "I was actually surprised at how the first set went. He made me work harder in the second set."

Earlier, seventh-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland ousted Japanese wild card Hiroki Moriya 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.

 

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