Top seed David Ferrer was dumped out of the China Open on Thursday, while on the women's side home favourite Zheng Jie cruised through to the quarterfinals.

Elsewhere on day four of the tournament, defending women's champion Agnes Szavay was thumped 6-2, 6-2 by Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues but second seed Ana Ivanovic made it safely into the quarterfinals.

Ferrer, playing his first match of the tournament, lost to world number 92 Dudi Sela of Israel, 6-3, 6-3, in just 70 minutes.

Sela broke the world number five, part of a strong Spanish contingent here, in the fifth game of the second set, taking advantage of a string of unforced errors, and went on to seal the match.

"He played better than me and he fought more than me. I didn't fight a lot because psychologically I am not in a good moment now," Ferrer said.

"Maybe I was a little bit tired because I didn't sleep very well for two nights," added Ferrer, who helped Spain reach the Davis Cup final at the weekend with a win over Andy Roddick, the second seed here.

Roddick qualified for the last eight with a 6-4, 6-3 win over compatriot Brendan Evans, ranked a lowly 187 in the world.

Meanwhile, Zheng followed up her first round victory over 10th-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama.

Zheng, who will play Ivanovic in the last eight, beat the Serbian on the way to the Wimbledon semi-finals this year but said it would be tough to repeat the feat.

"Ana is a really good player. I won at Wimbledon and that brought me more confidence but there is a difference between a grass court and a hard court," she said.

"I just want to try my best and let the crowd see an exciting match," added Zheng, the only Chinese player left in the men's or women's draws.

The best-ever performance by a Chinese player at this tournament was by Peng Shuai, who reached the semifinal of the 2006 China Open but was one of the first-round losers on Tuesday, along with the host nation's top player Li Na.

Ivanovic, who beat France's Alize Cornet 6-1, 7-6 (7/1), said she was confident she could reclaim the number one ranking, currently held by Serena Williams.

Speaking about her upcoming clash with Zheng, she said: "It's going to be a tough match but I love challenges and she's a home player."

In other results Thursday, Spain's former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero beat compatriot and number five seed Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-4.

Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova beat eighth seed Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-2 and Germany's Bjorn Phau put out men's eighth seed Sam Querrey.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, Tommy Robredo and Rainer Schuettler also advanced.

AFP