China Open Tennis: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ends hopes of local hero Zhang Ze

TOP seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ended local hopes at the China Open with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of wildcard Zhang Ze to reach the quarter-finals in Beijing.

The 389-ranked Zhang offered some resistance to Frenchman Tsonga and gave a good account of himself in front of Chinese basketball hero Yao Ming who was watching from a VIP box. However, despite making the world No 7 sweat, an upset never really looked likely and Tsonga went through to the last eight where he will play former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, who beat fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers.

After finishing the match with an ace, Tsonga said: “I think when you reach the top 100 you can see the difference between the serves and with the returns.”

Croatia’s Marin Cilic also reached the quarter-finals after a three-set win against Italian Fabio Fognini.

The women’s tournament suffered another blow when second seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus pulled out with a foot injury.

That leaves Caroline Wozniacki as the only top-ten player in the draw after the world No 1 beat Estonian Kaia Kanepi.

Denmark’s Wozniacki was pushed hard by Kanepi before sealing a 6-3, 7-6 victory and a quarter-final against Italy’s Flavia Pennetta, who beat Dominika Cibulkova.

“I’m happy about the way I played. I think it was a high-level match and Kaia is a good player. I knew it was going to be a tough match, more so after losing to her last week [in Tokyo],” Wozniacki said.

“I was really happy to get this win and to get my revenge.”