Djokovic routs local lad Zhang

Beijing, October 8

Novak Djokovic churned towards Rafael Nadal’s all-time record for unbeaten starts to a tournament as he demolished Chinese number one Zhang Ze in less than an hour in Beijing on Thursday.

The world number one showed no mercy to Zhang, ranked 219, in front of his home fans as he ended local hopes 6-2, 6-1 in 55 minutes to reach his sixth China Open quarterfinals.

Djokovic, unbeaten in five appearances, now equals Jimmy Connors with 26 wins at a tournament before suffering a single defeat, in sight of Nadal’s record of 31 at the French Open.

“I guess as I keep coming back each year with that positive record, obviously gives me more confidence knowing that I played so well in the past on this court,” he said. “I just keep on going. That’s all. There is no particular reason. There’s a few things that play in my favour.”

Earlier Ivo Karlovic bludgeoned his way into the record books for career aces, and Garbine Muguruza had an eventful 22nd birthday as she smashed a racquet, reached the WTA Finals and then celebrated with cake. Muguruza was frustrated by Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni but she gathered herself for a 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 win. — AFP

Sania-Martina in semis

Beijing: Eyeing their eighth title of the season, Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis entered the semifinals of the China Open. Fresh from their Wuhan Open triumph, the top seeds managed to prevail over the German-Czech pair of Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova 7-6(5) 6-4 in their quarterfinal match that lasted an hour and 20 minutes. The Indo-Swiss combination has bagged seven women’s doubles titles this year so far, including two Grand Slams — Wimbledon and the US Open — since they started playing together in March. — PTI