China's Peng Shuai stopped by Petrova at China Open

BEIJING, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Peng Shuai did not continue with her giant-killing run at the 6.6 million U.S. dollars China Open as she was stopped by Russia's 13th seed Nadia Petrova 6-7 (5),6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Peng went off with a flying start to a noisy audience, breaking Petrova's first serve for a 2-0 lead in the opening set, but Petrova broke back in the fourth game to level the match.

At 6-5, Petrova threatened to close up the set earlier while forcing a break point in the 10th set on Peng's serve, but the 23-year-old Chinese girl, who produced impressive baseline work, held serve and won the following tiebreak at 7-5.

Peng, who beat top seeds Jelena Jankovic and Maria Sharapova on her road to the last eight, called medical timeout at 1-1 in the second set, which did not help. The Russian broke in the seventh and ninth games to pull back one set at 6-3.

Petrova, physically in good shape after battling through second seed Serena Williams in the last round only 15 hours ago, became confident in the final set and was never really troubled before securing the set at 6-2.

Coming up next for her will be Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who beat compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-3.

In the men's quarterfinals, world number four Novak Djokovic reached the last four after defeating fifth seed Fernando Verdasco6-3, 1-6, 6-1.

Coming into the match on a four-match winning streak, the 22-year-old Djokovic had to overcome a worrying second set before wrapping up the match in one hour and 44 minutes.

The Serbian will surpass Andy Murray and return to No. 3 in the world rankings if he reaches the final on his debut in Beijing this week.

"I had ups and downs in today's match," said Djokovic. "Verdasco used these chances in the second set when he broke and he had control over the match. I had to save energy in the second set for the refreshing start of the third and I was fortunate enough to do so."

Djokovic next will face sixth seed Robin Soderling who beat Croat Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 (3), 6-4.

In an earlier match, world No. 15 Marin Cilic from Croatia also earned a place in the semifinals after victory over Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 6-4, 6-4.