Top seeds progress in Beijing

BEIJING (AFP) –

World number two Maria Sharapova progressed to the semi-finals of the China Open without losing a game against fifth seed Angelique Kerber Friday, as top seed Victoria Azarenka also made it through. Sharapova, 25, won the first set 6-0, and was three games up in the second without reply before Kerber, sixth in the WTA rankings, retired citing an injury to her right foot.

World number two Maria Sharapova progressed to the semi-finals of the China Open without losing a game against fifth seed Angelique Kerber Friday, as top seed Victoria Azarenka also made it through.

Sharapova, 25, won the first set 6-0, and was three games up in the second without reply before Kerber, sixth in the WTA rankings, retired citing an injury to her right foot.

The 25-year-old Russian has made it to the last four of the Beijing tournament without conceding a set, as has Azarenka, the world number one.

Azarenka, from Belarus, maintained her scintillating form by defeating Romina Oprandi 6-2, 6-0 in under 56 minutes.

“It’s never easy to go in the tennis court and win the match even though the score was like this,” Azarenka said.

“It’s important to stay tough and have that concentration to make sure that you can win every ball and every point.

Zhang Ze of China returns a shot during his quarter final men’s singles match against Florian Mayer of Germany at the China Open tennis tournament in the National Tennis Center of Beijing on October 5, 2012. Mayer went on to win 6-3, 6-4.

“I felt like I was playing well, but it wasn’t easy,” she added.

In the men’s draw Chinese wildcard Zhang Ze’s fairytale run came to an end when he suffered a straight-sets defeat to Germany’s Florian Mayer in the quarter-finals.

The 22-year-old, ranked 165th in the world, made history in the last 16 when he became the first Chinese man ever to beat a top 20 player, dumping out France’s Richard Gasquet.

His defeat of the Frenchman, ranked 14th, also meant Zhang was the first men’s player from China to reach the quarter-final of an ATP event since Pan Bing made the semi-finals in Seoul in 1995.

But matching Pan’s 17-year-old mark proved a step too far for the right-hander from Nanjing, with world number 29 Mayer winning 6-3, 6-4.

Elsewhere, third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France defeated Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets.

Tsonga, who received a walkover in the previous round, continued into the semi-finals, 6-3, 6-2.