BEIJING - World No. 1 Dinara Safina was beaten 7-5, 7-6 (5) by local wild-card entrant Zhang Shuai in the China Open second round on Monday, a shock defeat that could lead to the Russian's top ranking passing to No. 2 Serena Williams.
In other drama, Venus Williams fell to Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, whose 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory was her second over the American in a week, while Novak Djokovic fired 10 aces in a 6-3, 7-5 win over Romania's Victor Hanescu to advance to the second round.
Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Que., won her second-round match, a 7-6 (0), 6-4 victory over Alize Cornet of France.
Having lost the first set to the 20-year-old Zhang, Safina found herself 5-4 behind in the second. She battled back to force the tiebreak, but with the crowd and momentum behind the local player, Zhang held firm to take the match.
Safina would lose her No. 1 ranking to Serena Williams if she finished behind the American, who won her first-round match Saturday against Estonia's Kaia Kanepi and next faces Russian Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday. Safina can hold on to the top ranking if Serena loses.
The latest defeat comes a week after Safina was knocked out of the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open by 18-year-old qualifier Chang Kai-chen from Taiwan.
