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Beijing - Second-seeded Victoria Azarenka reached the third round of the China Open by beating Polona Hercog of Slovakia on Wednesday, while in the men's draw third-seeded Tomas Berdych was also a straight-sets winner over Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.
The fourth-ranked Belarussian Azarenka will next face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. Pavlyuchenkova beat Azarenka in doubles on Wednesday.
"I just need to get some rest and get ready for tomorrow," Azarenka said after her 7-6 (8), 6-3 win.
In the third round, Ana Ivanovic defeated third-seeded Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-1.
The former world No 1 said changes made by new coach Nigel Sears were starting to pay off, especially in improving her serve and forehand.
"Sometimes it takes time to see results, but it's coming together now," said Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion.
Ivanovic will next meet 11th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who beat Zheng Jie of China 6-1, 6-4.
In another third-round match, ninth-seeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany defeated eighth-seed Marion Bartoli of France, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in a contest that lasted two hours, 44 minutes.
Also on Wednesday, Berdych reached the third round of the men's draw with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Kohlschreiber. The Czech next faces Fernando Verdasco of Spain, who defeated Flavio Cipolla of Italy 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia beat Florian Mayer of Germany 6-0, 2-6, 6-3, and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia beat Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-5.
