Wednesday 17 September 2014 16:02, UK
Victoria Azarenka’s struggles continued as she was beaten 6-3 6-4 by Ana Ivanovic in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
The former world No 1 has not been able to regain her form after returning to the WTA Tour from injury in June and suffered another setback in Tokyo.
Azarenka served nine double faults and had her service broken a total of five times as third seed Ivanovic wrapped up the win in just an hour and 36 minutes.
Azarenka, who has won the Australian Open twice, has not progressed beyond the quarter-finals of any tournament since the Brisbane International at the start of January.
"It was a very tough second round match. She'd had one match already, so I really tried to take my time and get into the match, working hard for each point," Ivanovic told the WTA's official website.
"It was a good quality match and I played some good tennis in the important moments - I'm just very happy to be through, because it was a tough draw."
Ivanovic will face Lucie Safarova in the last eight after the seventh-seeded Czech defeated Swiss wildcard Belinda Bencic 3-6 6-4 6-2.
The 17-year-old Bencic caused a string of upsets in reaching the quarter-finals of the US Open recently but could not produce another shock in Japan despite going a set up.
Top seed Angelique Kerber eased past Elina Svitolina 6-4 6-4, while sixth seed Dominka Cibulkova also made it through to the last eight after securing a 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 win over Coco Vandeweghe.
