Tennis

Zheng beats Peng in all-Chinese 2nd-rounder

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-13 09:47

HOBART, Australia: Seventh-seeded Zheng Jie beat Chinese compatriot Peng Shuai 6-2, 6-1 Tuesday in a second-round match at the wind-blown Hobart International tennis tournament.

Fourth-seeded Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine defeated Alize Cornet of France 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 and will meet Zheng in the quarterfinals.

Eighth-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina also advanced to the Hobart quarterfinals for the second year in a row after beating Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-1, 0-6, 7-6 (5) in extremely windy conditions at the Domain Tennis Centre.

In the quarterfinals, Dulko will play top-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues, who beat Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in a night match.

Dulko was upset enough with the gusty conditions that she said tournament officials should have a policy to call play off in strong winds.

"It was a point today, it was impossible to play tennis," she said. "At the end of the second set, and almost all of the third set it was so tough _ you can't play like this. I don't think I've played tennis in worse conditions than this today."

Points were interrupted several times as objects blew across the court and scoreboards were weighed down.

"It was really windy and everything was flying around on the court, I couldn't serve, toss the ball," Dulko added.