Russia’s Vera Zvonareva in action against Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic during their women’s singles third round match at the China Open tennis tournament at the National Stadium court in Beijing, China, yesterday. Ivanovic won 6-2 and 6-1. (EPA)

Reuters/Beijing
Second seed Victoria Azarenka took a swipe at the crowd as she moved into the last 16 of the China Open yesterday with victory over Slovakia’s Polona Hercog.
The Belarussian, much criticised for her on-court decibel levels, said she had been distracted by noisy spectators during her 7-6 6-3 victory.
Third seed Vera Zvonareva crumbled to a 6-1 6-2 defeat against Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic in the third round and there was more disappointment for home fans as wildcard Jie Zheng was bundled out by Agnieszka Radwanska.
Zvonareva, the world number three, had no answer to the attacking groundstrokes of 18th seed Ivanovic in a one-sided opening set. The Russian tried to mix things up in the second but could make little impression and was left on the floor by one wrong-footing forehand by her opponent.
Ninth-seeded German Andrea Petkovic won through 4-6 6-4 7-5 in a three-set, two-hour-45-minute struggle for domination against eighth seed Marion Bartoli of France.
Jie enjoyed strong support from a partisan crowd in the 15,000-seater arena but the world number 72’s hopes of claiming a major scalp were crushed by Radwanska in a 6-1 6-4 defeat.
With French Open champion Li Na a surprise first-round casualty, China’s sole survivor in the tournament is lowly-ranked wildcard Ze Zhang who faces a daunting task against top-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the men’s second round on Thursday.
In the men’s draw, third seed Czech Tomas Berdych powered past Germany’s Philip Kohlschreiber 6-2 6-0.