Number one seed Novak Djokovic has comfortably advanced to the quarter finals of the China Open in Beijing, China after defeating Carlos Berlocq 6-1, 6-3 yesterday (October 3, local time).

Djokovic lived up to his billing as the number two player in the world early on, but stumbled in the second set after nearly squandering a 5-0 lead.

Luckily for the Serbian he was able to close out the match without too much further drama, and he will be pleased to have secured a straight sets victory after being pushed in his opening match against Michael Berrer.

"I have played a great match, much better than I have done in the first round," said Djokovic afterwards.

"We played some entertaining points. I should have done a better job in winning those games and winning this match before, but in the end I won in straight sets. That's what matters the most."

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also ran into trouble in his first match, nearly being upset by 26-year-old Uzbek Denis Istomin.

Istomin took the first set before being crushed in the second, however he recovered to take the third to a tiebreaker before finally going down with the scoreline reading 4-6, 6-1, 7-6.

Tsonga will be mighty relieved to have received a walkover in his second round match, after Nikolay Davydenko withdrew due to injury.

However the big talking point of the tournament so far has been Richard Gasquet's shock exit after being upset by China's Ze Zhang 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Gasguet, who entered the event as the fifth seed and 14th in the world, gave up a 0-2 lead in the final set to lose to a man ranked a full 151 places below him.

"Today I had no fear," said Zhang after claiming the victory.

"I was very much relaxed. I wasn't that nervous, so I tried my best to play with the utmost performance."

Zhang now qualifies for the quarter-finals, where he will take on 25th ranked German Florian Mayer. Other players to make it through to the third round include Sam Querrey, Feliciano Lopez, Mikhail Youzhny and Jurgen Melzer.