BEIJING, 23 September 2005 — World No. 1 Maria Sharapova produced a lackluster 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 victory over Israel’s Shahar Peer yesterday to reach the China Open quarterfinals.
By contrast, Wimbledon champion Venus Williams blew past Spaniard Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-3, 6-1 in the evening session despite an injury scare over her left knee.
A group of squealing Chinese models in skimpy tennis skirts and sporting blonde Sharapova wigs failed to inspire the top seed in her first match in two weeks.
The Russian teenager closed out a flawless first set with a vicious forehand down the line after 28 minutes but was punished for some sloppy play in the second.
Sharapova, who last month became the first Russian woman to top the world rankings, was broken three times as the 48th-ranked Peer levelled the second-round match in Beijing.
But she quickly recovered and the 18-year-old comfortably took the deciding set to win her first match since a tough loss to Kim Clijsters in the US Open semifinals.
The leggy Russian, who has won four of her 10 career titles in Asia, will play Japan’s Shinobu Asagoe, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over American Jill Craybas, in the last eight.
Third seed Williams was never threatened by Llagostera Vives, although she was forced to take an injury time-out at 4-1 in the second set for treatment on her knee.
Next up for the world No. 7 is Poland’s Marta Domachowska, who thrashed Chinese number three Zheng Jie by the same 6-3 6-1 score.
Both Williams and Sharapova received first-round byes. Venus’s younger sister Serena Williams was stunned 6-2, 7-6 by China’s Sun Tiantian on Wednesday. Sun, who won an Olympic doubles gold in Athens last year, next plays Maria Kirilenko after the Russian’s 6-1 7-6 win over Japan’s Aiko Nakamura.
Arvidsson Stuns
Fifth-Seed Zanetti
In Calcutta, India, Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson shocked fifth-seed Antonella Serra Zanetti 6-2, 6-1 yesterday to enter the quarterfinals of the WTA Tour’s $170,000 Sunfeast Open.
Second-seeded Russian Elena Likhovtseva booked her place in the final eight with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Sunitha Rao of the United States in the second round.
Seventh-seeded Karolina Sprem of Croatia was stretched to three sets by Puerto Rico’s Villmarie Castellvi before Sprem prevailed 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 in their second-round contest.
Likhovtseva, ranked 16th in the world, dropped service twice in the opening set against the 161st-ranked Rao, but broke back three times to clinch it. The Russian’s service improved in the second set, in which she did not drop a single service point, and she broke Rao’s service in the third, fifth and seventh games.
Garrigues, Henke Move
Into Quarterfinals
In Ljubljana, Slovenia, second-seeded Anabel Madinah Garrigues of Spain easily beat Slovene teenager Masa Zec Peskiric in the second round of the Slovenia Open WTA tournament.
Madinah Garrigues, ranked 27th in the world dominated the match to win 6-1, 6-2.
Garrigues, 23, is aiming to win her third WTA title this year after victories in Strasborg, France, and Palermo. She also was a semifinalist in New Haven.
Vanessa Henke of Germany, who had ousted top-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy in the first round, advanced to the quarterfinals after beating Ekaterina Bychkova of Russia, 6-4, 7-5.
Also moving to today’s quarterfinals was Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, who defeated Maret Ani of Estonia, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.
