Peng Shuai Knocks Out Sharapova at China Open

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)