Dementieva easily wins third-round match

BEIJING, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- No. 4-seeded Elena Dementieva swept to a straight-set victory Wednesday in third-round play of the $4.5 million China Open tennis tournament.

Dementieva won 69 percent of the points in a 6-2, 6-0 rout of No. 16th-seeded Li Na. Dementieva dominated throughout, dropping just five points when she got her first serve in and taking nearly two-thirds of the points when Li served.

Sixth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova also advanced to the quarterfinals, defeating Alona Bondarenko 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. She dropped serve twice, and fought off another 13 break-point chances for Bondarenko, in the nearly two-hour match.

Her quarterfinal opponent will be Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who was a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Aleksandra Wozniak Wednesday.

Maria Sharapova, ranked 15th in the world, fell 6-2, 6-4 to local favorite Peng Shuai. It was the second high-profile win in a row for the No. 53-ranked Peng, who dispatched eighth-ranked Jelena Jankovic in the second round.

The third round is scheduled to be completed Thursday, when the card features world No. 2 Serena Williams. The tournament title match, worth $775,500 to the winner, is Sunday.