Top seed David Ferrer was dumped out of the China Open on Thursday, while on the women's side home favorite Zheng Jie cruised through to the quarterfinals. Elsewhere on day four of the tournament, defending women's champion Agnes Szavay was thumped 6-2, 6-2 by Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues but second seed Ana Ivanovic made it safely into the quarterfinals. Ferrer, playing his first match of the tournament, lost to world number 92 Dudi Sela of Israel, 6-3, 6-3, in just 70 minutes. Sela broke the world number five, part of a strong Spanish contingent here, in the fifth game of the second set, taking advantage of a string of unforced errors, and went on to seal the match. Andy Roddick of the US qualified for the last eight with a 6-4, 6-3 win over compatriot Brendan Evans, ranked a lowly 187 in the world. Meanwhile, Zheng followed up her first round victory over 10th-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama. Zheng, who will play Ivanovic in the last eight, beat the Serbian on the way to the Wimbledon semifinals this year but said it would be tough to repeat the feat. “Ana is a really good player. I won at Wimbledon and that brought me more confidence but there is a difference between a grass court and a hard court,” she said. The best-ever performance by a Chinese player at this tournament was by Peng Shuai, who reached the semifinal of the 2006 China Open but was one of the first-round losers on Tuesday, along with the host nation's top player Li Na. Ivanovic, who beat France's Alize Cornet 6-1, 7-6 (7-1), said she was confident she could reclaim the number one ranking, currently held by Serena Williams. In other results Thursday, Spain's former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero beat compatriot and number five seed Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-4. Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova beat eighth seed Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-2 and Germany's Bjorn Phau put out men's eighth seed Sam Querrey. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, Tommy Robredo and Rainer Schuettler also advanced. Djokovic destroys Stadler In Bangkok, Novak Djokovic made a winning return after a four-year absence from the Thailand Open, powering into the quarterfinals 6-1, 6-3 over German Simon Stadler on Thursday. The Serb set up a Friday match with Swedish sixth seed Robin Soderling, a winner over Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-1, 6-3. Top seed Djokovic played the event in 2004, losing in the first round as a teenage wild card. France's Nicolas Mahut upset Finnish fifth seed Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 as the number 74 joined compatriots Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and number four Gael Monfils in the last eight. Among the five French who began the week at the Impact arena, only Julien Benneteau and Fabrice Santoro have lost so far. Mahut, 26, came to Thailand with confidence from a Challenger title in Orleans. The Marseille quarterfinalist, who was 40th in the ATP in February, duplicated his quarter-final here in 2007. Mahut took a 3-1 lead over number 33 Nieminen in the final set only to lose the advantage a game later as the Finn broke back for 2-3. But Mahut held his nerve to serve out the upset on the first of three match points and claim his 15th win of the season. He improved to 2-2 against Nieminen, who has previously had two semi-finals and a quarter-final finish in Bangkok.
