Djokovic Beijing quarters, Murray in Tokyo

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic enjoyed a convincing straight-sets win against unseeded journeyman Carlos Berlocq of Argentina Wednesday to progress to the quarterfinals of the China Open. The 25-year-old Serbian maintained his unbeaten record at the Beijing tournament by dismantling the player ranked 50th in the ATP standings 6-1, 6-3. Djokovic won the first set in only 25 minutes and raced to a 5-0 lead in the second, only to lose three games carelessly before wrapping up the match. The former world No. 1 has won the event on the two occasions he has entered, in 2009 and 2010, but missed last year because of injury. The No. 1 seed will play Austrian Jurgen Melzer in the next round. Melzer knocked out sixth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov in three sets. In the women’s draw world No. 2 Maria Sharapova made light work of her second-round match, progressing to the last 16 with ease. The Russian No. 2 seed defeated Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, ranked 29th in the WTA standings, in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. “I thought I served really well today, much better than the first round,” the winner of four Grand Slam singles titles said. “She [Cirstea] is someone that likes to be aggressive, get the first shot and hit it really hard. I was happy I took her time away. It was important to try to take that away from her.” The 25-year-old will face Slovenia’s Polona Hercog, 90th in the rankings, in the third round. There was a shock in the last 16 when the 69th-ranked Romina Oprandi of Switzerland beat former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic in straight sets to progress to the quarterfinals. Oprandi, who received a late entry after Serena Williams withdrew just two days before the start of the tournament, defeated the 11th seed from Serbia 6-4, 6-3. “I really struggled to find my rhythm out there today, especially on the forehand,” the world No. 12 Ivanovic said. “The ball was coming without much pace and I wasn’t really efficient moving forward and taking advantage of that,” she added. “It was the unforced errors that made a big difference.” Ivanovic’s compatriot Jelena Jankovic was also knocked out, losing to Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 6-4. Navarro will play France’s Marion Bartoli in the quarterfinals after the ninth seed overcame Julia Goerges of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (7/2). Meanwhile, defending champion Andy Murray posted a comfortable straight-sets win over Lukas Lacko of Slovakia to earn a place in the quarterfinals at the Japan Open tennis tournament Wednesday. The top-seeded Briton, who won the U.S. Open last year and took gold medal in the singles event at the Olympics, needed only 56 minutes to secure a 6-1, 6-2 victory in the second round. With the win, Murray set up a quarterfinal meeting against Beijing Olympic doubles gold medalist Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland. “I started the match almost perfect. I only lost a couple of points in the first four or five games, so that was important. And once I got a break in the second set, I started to play better again,” said Murray. When he was asked about the match against seventh-seeded Wawrinka, Murray said: “He is playing very well just now. He had a good U.S. Open and he also did well in Cincinnati, he made a semifinal ... I think hard courts are a good surface for him. We had a lot of tough matches over years especially on hard courts, so I expect the same one on Friday.” Wawrinka squandered three match points in the second set leading 6-3 in the tiebreaker before beating Jeremy Chardy of France 7-6 (7/1), 6-7 (6/8), 7-5 in 2 hours 37 minutes. “For sure, it wasn’t easy in the second set, especially after having three match points in the tiebreak,” said Wawrinka, 27, who fired 19 aces. “You need to be ready to still play the third set and to fight. It was really tough for me, but at the end I managed well. I was playing really good in the third set,” he added. As for the match against Murray, Wawrinka said: “He is playing great, he won the Olympics, he won the U.S. Open and he always plays great here.” “It’s going to be tough, for sure. It’s always tough to play against top five, top four players. You need to focus on what you are going to do and try to play your best game,” he said. In the first round action, Juan Monaco of Argentina whipped Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-2, 6-1, while third seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia outclassed Bangkok finalist Gilles Simon of France 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.