Quickfire Djokovic puts Nadal record in his sights
BEIJING: Novak Djokovic churned towards Rafael Nadal’s all-time record for unbeaten starts to a tournament as he demolished Chinese number one Zhang Ze in less than an hour in Beijing on Thursday.
The world number one showed no mercy to Zhang, ranked 219, in front of his home fans as he ended local hopes 6-2, 6-1 in 55 minutes to reach his sixth China Open quarter-final.
Djokovic, unbeaten in five appearances, now equals Jimmy Connors with 26 wins at a tournament before suffering a single defeat, in sight of Nadal’s record of 31 at the French Open.
On the women’s side, the two US Open finalists from Italy — Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci — both lost in the third round.
Pennetta, the US Open champion, lost to Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, while Vinci was beaten by American qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.
Following her triumph in New York, Pennetta announced that she would retire at the end of the season — a decision she reaffirmed on Thursday.
She has one more tournament scheduled next week in Tianjin, China, and could still qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore, though her loss to Pavlyuchenkova dented her chances.
“There is nothing going to change if I go to Singapore or not. My career is going to be over anyway,” she said. “Of course, is going to be nice to go to Singapore. If I make it, it’s OK. If I don’t, I go on vacation.”
Ana Ivanovic outlasted Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 to set up a quarter-final with Pavlyuchenkova despite needing repeated treatment for a back problem.
Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza of Spain clinched her spot at the WTA finals with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.