Who is the player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova have beaten for the second time in a week in Beijing?”
BEIJING (AP) — Dinara Safina lost to Chinese wild card Zhang Shuai 7-5, 7-6 (5) in the second round of the China Open on Monday, a result that could lead to Serena Williams taking the No. 1 ranking. Venus Williams fell to teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, the second time in a week the Russian has beaten her. Novak Djokovic had 10 aces in a 6-3, 7-5 win over Romania’s Victor Hanescu to reach the second round. Safina would lose her top ranking if she finishes behind No. 2 Serena Williams in this tournament. Williams won her first-round match Saturday against Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi and next faces Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday. Safina can hold the top ranking if Williams loses. The latest defeat comes a week after Safina was knocked out of the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open by 18-year-old qualifier Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan. “I woke up this morning feeling really excited, but didn’t do any special preparation and never expected to win the match,” said Zhan
Venus Williams lost to Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for the second time in a week to exit the China Open 3-6 6-1 6-4 Pavlyuchenkova KOs Venus again World number three Venus Williams lost to Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for the second time in a week to exit the China Open 3-6 6-1 6-4 at the second-round stage. The 18-year-old world number 39 refused to be awed by Williams and dominated the last two sets of the 132-minute contest. She also beat the seven-times Grand Slam winner in Tokyo last Monday. “She played really well, unfortunately sometimes I made errors too soon in the play,” Williams, 29, said. “Twelve double faults didn’t help me today; I wasn’t counting those, though.” Williams had an inkling of the fight on her hands when her 18-year-old opponent took her to six deuces as she was serving for the first set. “She started way aggressive today,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “She wanted to kill me, I guess.” The Russian raced through the second set, wobbled a bit
