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Eugenie Bouchard of CanadaHong Wu/Getty Images

Eugenie Bouchard lost her second-round match Tuesday at the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing.

Bouchard, the eighth-seed from Westmount, Que., fell in two sets to unseeded Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-2, 6-4.

On Saturday, Bouchard had reached the final of the Wuhan Open China, but lost in two sets to third-seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic. Kvitova had earlier defeated Bouchard in women`s final at Wimbledon.

Maria Sharapova advanced with ease at the China Open, while Agnieszka Radwanska's late-season slump continued with another early loss.

The fourth-seeded Sharapova saved seven of nine break points she faced in a 6-2, 6-2 second-round win over Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, a semifinalist last week at the Wuhan Open.

"She's sort of an up-and-comer. But playing really well. Has had some big results this year against top players," Sharapova said of Svitolina. "Maybe the scoreline was a bit easier than the match showed."

The fifth-seeded Radwanska, meanwhile, became the highest seed to lose in the women's draw, falling to Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4, 6-4.

Since winning the Canadian Open in August, the Pole hasn't advanced past the quarterfinals in five events. She could have wrapped up her spot in the season-ending WTA Finals this week, but fell in the second round in both Wuhan and now Beijing.

Rafa Nadal enjoyed an emphatic return to singles action as he powered past Richard Gasquet on Tuesday, while world number one Novak Djokovic overcame a sluggish start to continue his perfect run in Beijing.

Spanish world number two Nadal, playing his first singles match in three months following a wrist injury, extended his record to 13-0 against the Frenchman with a brisk 6-4 6-0 win after Djokovic had beaten Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2 6-1.

An early break for Nadal in the third game put him on course for the first set but only after the left hander saved a break point with an ace when trying to serve it out.

A dejected Gasquet was then broken in the opening game of the second set as Nadal's confidence soared, the Spaniard pummelling some trademark forehand winners as he wrapped up the first round win with a 27th fizzing winner.

Nadal's last match before Beijing was a last 16 defeat to Australian Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon.

He made a low key doubles return on Monday when he teamed up with compatriot Pablo Andujar but the Spanish duo were defeated by Czech Tomas Berdych and American John Isner.

Nadal will face German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk in the second round after the world number 122 defeated big serving Ivo Karlovic 6-4 2-6 7-5.

Djokovic had less time away than Nadal but showed more rust in his first appearance on the ATP Tour since losing to Kei Nishikori in the semi-finals of the U.S. Open earlier this month.

The world number one traded five breaks of serve in the opening six games against Garcia-Lopez before Djokovic took a grasp of the match by holding for only the second time to lead 5-2.

He then broke Garcia-Lopez for a fourth time to seal the set with the Spaniard his own worst enemy, landing only 38 per cent of his first serves.

The Serb looked more assured in the second set as he dropped just 14 points to take it 6-1 and make it a perfect 20 wins and no losses on Beijing's blue courts as he bids for a fifth title here.

Third seed Berdych also dropped just three games in a first round win as the Czech downed tall Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-1 6-2.

Berdych won the ATP 500 event in 2011, when Djokovic didn't enter, and needs a similarly strong week to book a spot at the season ending ATP World Tour finals in London.

The Czech currently holds the eighth and final qualifying position for the prestigious November tournament, but many of his challengers for a berth are competing in Beijing or Tokyo this week.

One of those is Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who faced a tough encounter with Spain's Fernando Versaco in Monday's night session before prevailing 6-1 3-6 6-3.

In other matches, second-seeded Simona Halep survived a tight match against 167th-ranked Lin Zhu of China, prevailing 7-5, 6-4. Halep is also seeking to regain her form after crashing out to 121st-ranked Mirjana Lucic-Baroni at the U.S. Open.

No. 1 Serena Williams took on Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria late Tuesday, while her sister Venus met rising French player Caroline Garcia for the second straight week; Garcia won in Wuhan in three sets.

FIles from Reuters were used in this report

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