THE CANADIAN PRESS
BEIJING — Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak’s run at the China Open came to an end Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The native of Blainville, Que., was down 1-5 in the second set before rallying, saving two match points in the 10th game before succumbing.
Wozniak also advanced to the third round last week in Tokyo, where she fell to Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova in three sets.
Also losing Wednesday was Maria Sharapova, who dropped a 6-2, 6-4 decision to Peng Shuai of China. Svetlana Kuznetsova also moved into the quarter-finals by defeating Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.
Kuznetsova next faces Pavlyuchenkova.
Peng broke Sharapova twice in the first set, and again in the sixth game of the second. Sharapova saved two match points at 5-4 before losing to the 53rd-ranked player.
The former top-ranked Russian appeared to show the strain of her three-set win over Victoria Azarenka the night before.
"I’ve had matches where I didn’t feel like I was maybe at the level that I wanted to be," said Sharapova, ranked 15th. "But I was able to fight through that and get through it, and today was just not one of those days, unfortunately."
Fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia routed Li Na of China 6-2, 6-0.
Nikolay Davydenko of Russia advanced in the men’s field, easily beating Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-1, 6-0. Davydenko will face Marin Cilic of Croatia, who defeated Julien Benneteau of France 6-2, 2-6, 6-0.
Second-seeded Novak Djokovic trounced Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-0 in an all-Serbian match, while Fernando Verdasco defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-4 in an all-Spanish match.
–With files from The Associated Press