Kvitova crashes out in Beijing

BEIJING: World No. 5 Petra Kvitova suffered her second early exit in just over a week yesterday as she crashed out of the China Open’s round two at the hands of Carla Suarez Navarro.
Last year’s Wimbledon champion lost 6-3, 6-2 to the Spanish player ranked 46th in the world, after also being humiliated in straight sets by Croatia’s Petra Martic at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
The fourth seed from the Czech Republic had received a first-round bye in Japan before losing to Martic, then 73rd in the standings. And her poor form in Asia continued in Beijing, largely due to erratic serving.
Kvitova, who has yet to confirm her spot at the season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul featuring the year’s top eight players, hit five double faults in the match, while her opponent who did not make any.
Elsewhere, world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka progressed to the second round with ease, thrashing Alize Cornet of France 6-1, 6-0, while second-ranked Maria Sharapova came through 7-5, 7-5 against Romania’s Simona Halep.
“I put myself in a good position in both of those sets being up a break, and I let her back in the match a couple of times,” Sharapova said.
“That’s certainly not the best thing, I’m not exactly proud of it, but the good thing was I was able to regain my focus and win that match. I’m happy to be through.”
Former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, who won her first title in more than a year in Seoul last month, maintained her recent good form with a 7-5, 6-7 (6/8), 6-2 victory over Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa.
In the men’s event, last year’s losing finalist Marin Cilic suffered a shock first-round defeat to wild card Marius Copil, ranked more than 200 places below him in the world.
The fourth-seeded Croat took the first set by six games to three and looked to be coasting, but the Romanian world number 221 fought back with a number of big serves to take the second on a tie break, 7-6 (7/0) and the third 6-4.
“I wasn’t serving consistently well. When I had the break-up in all three sets I would lose my serve,” Cilic said.
The world number 15 lost to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in the 2011 final and was hoping to go one better this year.
“I’m very disappointed as I always feel here may be the best of the year, and the conditions would suit my game almost perfectly,” Cilic added.
Berdych eases past Paire
in Tokyo opener
In Tokyo, former champion Tomas Berdych eased his way into the second round of the Japan Open with a 6-1 7-6 victory over France’s Benoit Paire yesterday.
US Open champion Andy Murray opens the defense of his Tokyo title against Frenchman Gael Monfils on Tuesday.
Second seed Berdych almost inflicted the dreaded ‘bagel’ on Paire in the first set until the Frenchman finally held serve in the sixth game but the Czech was pushed in the second.
Berdych, who beat Juan Martin del Potro to win the 2008 Tokyo title, took the second set on a tiebreak 8-6 to close out the match in blazing sunshine.
“I was actually surprised at how the first set went,” Berdych told reporters. “He made me work harder in the second set.
“I’m taking anything for granted,” added Berdych, who defeated Roger Federer in his run to last month’s US Open semi-finals.
“I hope if I can continue to play like this it will qualify me for London.”
The Czech is currently seventh in race to make the elite eight-man World Tour Finals having qualified for the season-ending shootout the past two years.
“I’m going match-by-match,” said world number six Berdych, seeking his second title of the year this week after winning in Montpellier in February.
“I have nice memories here. I like coming back to Tokyo. It was one of the biggest tournaments I won in the past. It gives me positive thinking.”

Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka was given a fright by Japanese wildcard Hiroki Moriya before the seventh seed came through 7-5 4-6 6-4.
Lukas Lacko of Slovakia thrashed Spain’s Alberto Ramos 6-0 6-2 to set up a clash with either Murray or Monfils.
Serbia’s Viktor Troicki was a man in a hurry, firing 12 aces in a 6-2 6-3 win over Dutchman Robin Haase 6-2, 6-3 that took just 64 minutes.