BEIJING — World No. 5 Petra Kvitova suffered her second early exit in just over a week Monday 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. 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 first round of the men's draw, fourth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia, last year's runner-up, lost to Marius Copil of Romania 3-6, 6-7 (0), 6-4. In other men's matches, Florian Mayer of Germany beat Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-1, 6-2, while Carlos Berlocq of Argentina defeated Marinko Matosevic of Austria 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Sixth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-0, 6-4, and Sam Querrey of the United States defeated Fernando Verdasco of Spain 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. Berdych eases past Paire 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 Monday. 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. 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. — Agencies
