China Open: Petkovic defeats her second former champion

Andrea Petkovic of Germany hits a return to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus during their first round tennis match at the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing on September 30, 2013. Petkovic won 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. AFP

BEIJING — Andrea Petkovic continued her stunning form at the China Open by dumping out former Roland Garros winner Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in her second-round match Wednesday.

The German, who is ranked 43 in the world, took just over two hours to claim victory over the 25th-ranked Russian, a previous winner in Beijing in 2006 and 2009.

Petkovic’s victory over the 2009 French Open singles champion follows her stunning first-round defeat of second seed and current Beijing champion Victoria Azarenka.

The 26-year-old said claiming the scalps of both the Belarusian — who won the Australian Open for the second time earlier this year — and Kuznetsova had given her confidence a massive boost.

“This is the first tournament that I’ve been able to really keep up my intensity and keep up my focus. I think I played two good matches,” she told reporters.

“For me, just personally, it’s really important to see that I can still beat the players on the top level, two past Grand Slam champions.

“It’s just a big boost for my confidence, no matter what happens now in the future.”

Elsewhere, eighth seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia booked her place in the last 16 with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Kazakhstan’s Galina Voskoboeva, and Slovenia’s Polona Hercog defeated 14th seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-4.

In the men’s tournament, Australia’s former world number one Lleyton Hewitt suffered a crushing 6-0, 6-2 defeat at the hands of Fabio Fognini.

The Italian will face second seed Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals if the Spaniard overcomes Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in his Wednesday evening match.