Peng Shuai Knocks Out Sharapova at China Open
By wchung | 22 Mar, 2026

China's Peng Shuai hits the ball to the audience after she defeated Maria Sharapova of Russia at the second round of China Open tennis tournament in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. Peng defeated Sharapova 6-2, 6-4. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Maria Sharapova was eliminated from the China Open on Wednesday, losing to Peng Shuai of China 6-2, 6-4, and Svetlana Kuznetsova moved into the quarterfinals by beating Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.

Peng broke Sharapova twice in the first set, and then again in the sixth game of the second as the former top-ranked Russian appeared to show the strain of her three-set comeback victory over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus the night before.

“I’ve had matches where I didn’t feel like I was maybe at the level that I wanted to be but I was able to fight through that and get through it, and today was just not one of those days, unfortunately,” Sharapova said.

Sharapova did save two match points at 5-4 before losing.

The sixth-seeded Kuznetsova outplayed Bondarenko for much of the match and next faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who defeated Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada 6-4, 6-4.

Later, Li Na of China was to play Elena Dementieva of Russia.

Nikolay Davydenko of Russia advanced in the men’s field, easily beating Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-1, 6-0. Davydenko will next face Marin Cilic of Croatia, who beat Julien Benneteau of France 6-2, 2-6, 6-0.

Novak Djokovic was to play Viktor Troicki in an all-Serbian match, and Fernando Verdasco was to face Juan Carlos Ferrero in an all-Spanish encounter.

10/7/2009 7:48 AM BEIJING (AP)