The quarter finals were well contested battles of attrition.
(Rank/Seed)
1/1 Williams dominated 2010 champion (8/6) Wozniacki 61 64, hitting 41 winners and losing serve only once. Wozniacki battled gamely in the second set having initially trailed 0-4, at one stage extending Williams in a 38 stroke rally. However, she never really threatened to win the set as Serena was too powerful and claimed her 6th win in 7 meetings to move into her 2nd career Beijing semi.
4/3 Radwanska avenged a loss last week in Tokyo against (9/7) Kerber 76(7) 64 to move into a 3rd Beijing semi final. Radwanska had looked good to take the first set as she led 5-1 and would hold 6 set points between then and the tiebreak, but each time Kerber came up with huge shots, demolishing Radwanska's second serve particularly. Kerber would then be crippled with nerves leading 6-2 in the tiebreak, her serve falling apart in particular and understandably struggled mentally throughout the second set having fought so hard for nothing. Radwanska won for a 5th time in 8 meetings, avenging a loss here in 2010.
7/9 Kvitova extended her winning run with a fight back to beat (5/4) Li 46 62 64 before a raucously partisan crowd. Both players hit far fewer winners than unforced errors throughout (Kvitova 21:38, Li 17:34) as each player made it their objective to attack from the off, forcing errors from each other after some astonishing rallies full of flat ball striking (one rally was 27 shots long). In the end though, Kvitova handled the crowd interference better as from 3-1 up in the 3rd set, Li's return game crumbled and Kvitova claimed her 3rd win in 6 meetings.
11/8 Jankovic moved into her 3rd Beijing semi with a battling 67(3) 64 64 win over in form (34/-) Safarova, her 6th win in 8 meetings. Their were no breaks in the first set, Safarova saving a set point en route. However, an increasing unforced error count undermined her case as Jankovic defended excellently and edged a tight third set, despite facing 2 break points at 3-4 having twice earlier led by a break.
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