体坛英语新闻：Comeback queen Sharapova out, Dementieva and Djokovic advance

BEIJING, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova did not continue her top form as she crashed out of the 4.5 million U.S. dollars China Open WTA tournament on Wednesday.

    Sharapova, who claimed her first title since returning from a shoulder injury in Tokyo on Saturday, seemed tired and dropped serve four times to lose to Chinese player Peng Shuai 6-2, 6-4 in only one hour and 14 minutes.

    Fourth seed Elena Dementieva immediately restored order in the second Russia versus China clash of the evening, rattling through her third round match against Li Na 6-2, 6-0 in just under an hour to move into the round of last eight.

    Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2006 China Open winner, overcame a misfiring serve to claim her place in the last eight with a 6-3, 4- 6, 6-0 victory over Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko.

    The sixth-seeded Russian will face compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals after the teenager beat Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-4, 6-4.

    Sharapova said: "My energy level was not where it should have been. I have some occasions where I've been able to fight back, today was just not one of those days unfortunately."

    "Peng played really solid and really aggressive and did all the right things to win the match."

    The 53rd-ranked Peng, who has scored an impressive comeback win over Serbia's No. 8 seed Jelena Jankovic the previous day, will in the quarterfinals face either second seed Serena Williams or Nadia Petrova from Russia.

    Chinese Grand Slam winners Zheng Jie/Yan Zi gave more reasons to their compatriots to hail on Wednesday when the country is still in holiday spree celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of country.

    The pair registered their second full sets win in 24 hours after beating six seeds German Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Swiss Patty Schnyder to advance into the women's doubles last four.

    Zheng and Yan, who this season did not partner so much like before, had a stunning midnight win over Australia's second seeds Samantha Stosur/Rennae Stubbs early this morning after beating six match points.

    Going to bed at around three o'clock this morning, the pair only had 12 hours to adjust and relax.

    "It was like a miracle that I fell asleep soon after I lied down. It was exciting but I can do with it. It did not affect our form in today's match," said Zheng after the 4-6, 6-0, 10-5 victory.

    "Our opponents had some plans for us so it is tough in the first set, but in the second set our coach told us to be consistent and made less mistakes. I think our chemistry is still there, that's the key to victory."

    In men's part, second seed Novak Djokovic did not waste his time to beat fellow Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-0 in the second round, while fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia earlier boosted his chances of reaching the ATP's season finale for a fifth time with a 6-1, 6-0 thrashing of Philipp Kohlschreiber from Germany.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball during the second round match of men's singles against his compatriot Viktor Troicki at China Open 2009 in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 7, 2009. Djokovic won 2-0.

There was also second round win for Fernando Verdasco, who defeated his fellow Spanish Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-4.