Azarenka wins, Ivanovic pulls upset
Source: Agencies |
October 6, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
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SECOND seed Victoria Azarenka took a swipe at the crowd as she moved into the last 16 of the China Open yesterday in Beijing with victory over Slovakia's Polona Hercog.
The Belarussian, much criticized for her on-court decibel levels, said she had been distracted by noisy spectators during her 7-6, 6-3 victory.
Third seed Vera Zvonareva crumbled to a 6-1, 6-2 defeat against Serbia's Ana Ivanovic in the third round and there was more disappointment for home fans as wildcard Zheng Jie was bundled out by Agnieszka Radwanska.
"I would love people to be a bit more respectful and turn off their cell phones and just come and watch tennis and respect that players are doing their job," world number four Azarenka said.
Zvonareva, the world number three, had no answer to the attacking groundstrokes of 18th seed Ivanovic in a one-sided opening set. The Russian tried to mix things up in the second but could make little impression and was left on the floor by one wrong-footing forehand by her opponent.
"It was a little awkward when she slipped. She had played good until then," the 23-year-old Ivanovic said.
"I felt I did well to keep her under pressure. I was very pleased with the win because she's a great player.
"We had a tough match a few months ago, so I really tried to step up today."
Ninth-seeded German Andrea Petkovic won through 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in a three-set, two-hour-45-minute struggle for domination against eighth seed Marion Bartoli of France.
Jie enjoyed strong support from a partisan crowd in the 15,000-seat arena, but the world number 72's hopes of claiming a major scalp were crushed by Radwanska in a 6-1, 6-4 defeat.
With French Open champion Li Na a surprise first-round casualty, China's sole survivor in the tournament is lowly-ranked wildcard Zhang Ze, who faces a daunting task against top-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the men's second round today.
In the men's draw, third seed Czech Tomas Berdych powered past Germany's Philip Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-0.
Spain's Fernando Verdasco came back from a set behind against Italy's Flavio Cipolla, winning 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals. Russia's Mikhail Youzhny beat Spain's Feliciano Lopez 6-7, 6-2, 7-5 and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia beat Florian Mayer of Germany 6-0, 2-6, 6-3.
In Tokyo, Andy Murray overcame an early break in the third set to beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 yesterday and reach the second round of the Japan Open.
Murray trailed 3-1 in the final set, but he then held serve and soon broke back to level the score at 3-3 at a covered Ariake Colosseum. With rain falling from the morning, play on the outer courts was suspended.
"He played well under the conditions. It took me longer to find the range," Murray said. "The hardest thing for me always is changing from playing outdoors to indoors."
Murray, who won last week's Thailand Open, struggled in the second set as the unseeded Baghdatis used a strong backhand and some clever drop shots to take the upper hand after losing the opening set.
"It was very tough. It was very long," Murray said. "I did a lot of running in the first two sets."
Earlier, Dmitry Tursunov of Russia beat sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 7-5.
Tipsarevic had won his first ATP Tour title by beating Baghdatis for the Malaysian Open title last weekend. Elsewhere, Bernard Tomic of Australia beat Tatsuma Ito of Japan 6-7, (4), 6-1, 7-5 while fourth-seeded Mardy Fish of the US defeated Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-2, 6-4.
The Belarussian, much criticized for her on-court decibel levels, said she had been distracted by noisy spectators during her 7-6, 6-3 victory.
Third seed Vera Zvonareva crumbled to a 6-1, 6-2 defeat against Serbia's Ana Ivanovic in the third round and there was more disappointment for home fans as wildcard Zheng Jie was bundled out by Agnieszka Radwanska.
"I would love people to be a bit more respectful and turn off their cell phones and just come and watch tennis and respect that players are doing their job," world number four Azarenka said.
Zvonareva, the world number three, had no answer to the attacking groundstrokes of 18th seed Ivanovic in a one-sided opening set. The Russian tried to mix things up in the second but could make little impression and was left on the floor by one wrong-footing forehand by her opponent.
"It was a little awkward when she slipped. She had played good until then," the 23-year-old Ivanovic said.
"I felt I did well to keep her under pressure. I was very pleased with the win because she's a great player.
"We had a tough match a few months ago, so I really tried to step up today."
Ninth-seeded German Andrea Petkovic won through 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in a three-set, two-hour-45-minute struggle for domination against eighth seed Marion Bartoli of France.
Jie enjoyed strong support from a partisan crowd in the 15,000-seat arena, but the world number 72's hopes of claiming a major scalp were crushed by Radwanska in a 6-1, 6-4 defeat.
With French Open champion Li Na a surprise first-round casualty, China's sole survivor in the tournament is lowly-ranked wildcard Zhang Ze, who faces a daunting task against top-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the men's second round today.
In the men's draw, third seed Czech Tomas Berdych powered past Germany's Philip Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-0.
Spain's Fernando Verdasco came back from a set behind against Italy's Flavio Cipolla, winning 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals. Russia's Mikhail Youzhny beat Spain's Feliciano Lopez 6-7, 6-2, 7-5 and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia beat Florian Mayer of Germany 6-0, 2-6, 6-3.
In Tokyo, Andy Murray overcame an early break in the third set to beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 yesterday and reach the second round of the Japan Open.
Murray trailed 3-1 in the final set, but he then held serve and soon broke back to level the score at 3-3 at a covered Ariake Colosseum. With rain falling from the morning, play on the outer courts was suspended.
"He played well under the conditions. It took me longer to find the range," Murray said. "The hardest thing for me always is changing from playing outdoors to indoors."
Murray, who won last week's Thailand Open, struggled in the second set as the unseeded Baghdatis used a strong backhand and some clever drop shots to take the upper hand after losing the opening set.
"It was very tough. It was very long," Murray said. "I did a lot of running in the first two sets."
Earlier, Dmitry Tursunov of Russia beat sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 7-5.
Tipsarevic had won his first ATP Tour title by beating Baghdatis for the Malaysian Open title last weekend. Elsewhere, Bernard Tomic of Australia beat Tatsuma Ito of Japan 6-7, (4), 6-1, 7-5 while fourth-seeded Mardy Fish of the US defeated Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-2, 6-4.
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