Berdych, Caroline crash out in Beijing

Beijing, OCtober 7

Second seed Tomas Berdych crashed out in the first round of the China Open on Wednesday after losing 6-4 6-4 to Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas, two days after winning his first ATP title of the year in Shenzen. The Czech, the 2011 champion and the finalist in Beijing last year, hit 16 winners while committing double the number of unforced errors to lose his opening match and now heads to Shanghai for his third event in the Asian country.

“I made one tournament title, the other one didn't go my way,” said Berdych. “(I'm) just going to try to do well in the third one, my last one.”

Spaniard David Ferrer, fresh from winning his fourth title of the year in Malaysia on Sunday, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-6(5) 6-2 win against Czech Lukas Rosol. Ferrer's countryman Rafa Nadal also made his way through to the last eight with a 7-6(3) 6-4 win over Vasek Pospisil in the final match of the evening.

In the women's draw, Pole Agnieszka Radwanska reached the last eight when her opponent Madison Keys retired with a thigh injury after losing the first set 6-3. Next up for Radwanska in the quarter-finals will be German Angelique Kerber who brushed aside Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-3, ending the Dane's chances of qualifying for the WTA Finals in Singapore. — Reuters

Sania-Martina in quarters

The Indo-Swiss tennis combine of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis earned a hard-fought victory to move into the doubles quarterfinals of the China Open. The top seeds took an hour and 17 minutes to edge past experienced Italian pair of Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta 1-6, 6-4, 10-6. This is the second victory in as many meetings for the Indo-Swiss pair over their opponents, having beaten the Italians in New York earlier this year. But it was the end of the road for Rohan Bopanna, who with American partner John Isner, lost his men's doubles first round in straight sets to Uruguayan-Serbian pairing of Pablo Cuevas and Viktor Troicki. The winners took just 54 minutes to easily beat Bopanna and Isner 6-4, 6-3. — IANS