China tennis ace Zheng Jie gained her second victory over a world top ten player this season by upsetting No 8 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 7-5, 6-3 in the second round of WTA Rogers Cup in Toronto on Wednesday.
The world No 25 fought back from 5-2 down to claim the first set and broke the Dane seven times in the match. Zheng also won their only previous meeting in 2006.
Zheng and Yan Zi lost to Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the first round of the women's doubles on Tuesday.
"It was a really difficult match. I'm so excited that I could catch up point by point in the first set and finally won it," Zheng said after her singles win.
"Victories over top ten players really give me much confidence for the upcoming US Open."
The 26-year-old will now meet Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic for a place in the quarterfinals.
On Aug 8, Zheng defeated defending champion Safina in the third round of the LA Women's Tennis Championships. That was the Chinese player's second career win over a world No 1; her first came against No 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia during Zheng's historic semifinal run at last year's Wimbledon Open.
Zheng defeated Ivanovic again at last year's China Open. The Serbian missed a chance to avenge those losses in Toronto as she lost to Safarova in round two.
Meanwhile, world No 1 Dinara Safina continued her recent run of poor form when she lost to Aravane Rezai of France 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in her second-round match at the $2 million event.
Former world No 1 Kim Clijsters continued her fine comeback after a two-year break from the game with a victory over world No 9 Victoria Azarenka, who eliminated China' Peng Shuai in the first round.
(China Daily August 21, 2009)
