MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reached the quarterfinals of the $4.5 million China Open tennis tournament on Wednesday with a straight-sets win over Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada.
After beating world No. 3 Venus Williams in three sets on Monday, the 18-year-old Russian became the first woman in the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. She will have to overcome either Russian No. 6 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova or Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko to reach her second WTA Tour semifinal.
Nikolai Davydenko breezed through the second round of the men's singles in Beijing on Wednesday, dropping just one game in beating Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber.
The fourth-seeded Russian will look to reverse a two-match losing streak against Marin Cilic of Croatia in the quarterfinals on Friday.
In Tokyo, Mikhail Youzhny got off to a winning start in the Japan Open, beating Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and a half. The Russian will face France's Gilles Simon in the second round.
