“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.
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Wildcard Zhang, China’s number one but ranked 219th in the world, could not contend with the power and precision of Djokovic’s ground strokes as he was broken immediately and soon yielded the first set.
World number one Novak Djokovic continued his rich vein of form as he claimed a comfortable straight-set win over Ze Zhang of China to advance to the China Open quarterfinals on Thursday.
Djokovic, 28, goes on to face Australian John Millman or American John Isner in the last eight.
Top seed Novak Djokovic improved his flawless record in Beijing to 25-0 by beating Italian Simone Bolelli 6-1 6-1.
On her eighth appearance in Beijing, world No. 7 Pennetta upset Chinese wild card player Han Xinyun and Teliana Pereira in previous two rounds.
Pavlyuchenkova won the second set 6-4 to force into the tiebreaker. “I think she was really consistent, making not too many mistakes”, Pennetta commented on her opponent’s performance.
The Serbian top seed, a five-time victor at the China Open, is now only behind Rafa Nadal who had a 31-0 run in the French Open at Roland Garros.
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Muguruza was frustrated by Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni but she gathered herself for a 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 win which qualified her for the glitzy, eight-player season finale in Singapore.
