Top seed Caroline Wozniacki beat Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova 6-2 6-3 but third seed Vera Zvonareva was more sternly tested by Czech Klara Zakopalova, the Russian eventually coming through 6-3 4-6 6-2 in the China Open on Tuesday.
Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has reached the second round of the China Open but fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon was a notable casualty.
Simon, seeded fifth in Beijing, was beaten in straight sets by world number 32 Marcel Granollers at the National Tennis Center. The Spaniard broke three times to one in the opening set and was even more dominant in the second, wrapping up a 6-3 6-1 win in an hour and nine minutes.
Tsonga was made to work hard by Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov but prevailed 7-6 (7/5) 7-5, breaking twice to win the second set. Third seed Tomas Berdych came through a similarly hard-fought two sets against Austria’s Jurgen Melzer, the Czech prevailing 7-5 7-5, but fourth seed Nicolas Almagro was another to fall after losing 6-3 6-2 to Mikhail Youzhny, who extended his 100% career record against Almagro to four matches.
Qualifier Philipp Kohlschreiber beat Tommy Robredo 6-3 7-6 (7/0), Fabio Fognini knocked out lucky loser Grega Zemlja – a replacement for injured second seed Gael Monfils – 6-4 6-1 and Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic saw off Teimuraz Gabashvili 7-5 7-5. There were also wins for Juan Carlos Ferrero, Albert Montanes and Ze Zhang, who beat fellow Chinese wild card Zhe Li 6-1 6-3.
Samantha Stosur was the highest-profile casualty in the women’s draw, beaten 7-5 1-6 7-5 by Russia’s Maria Kirilenko in two hours and 10 minutes. Roberta Vinci, the Italian 15th seed, collapsed badly after losing a first-set tie-break to France’s Virginie Razzano and went on to lose 7-6 (9/7) 6-0.
Eighth and ninth seeds Marion Bartoli and Andrea Petkovic were straight-sets winners against Christina McHale and Carla Suarez Navarro respectively. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Spain’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-2 6-3 and Italy’s Flavia Pennetta was a 6-2 6-1 win over Daniela Hantuchova.
