Peng Shuai of China hits a return to Roberta Vinci of Italy during their match at the 2014 US Open tennis tournament in New York on Aug 29. Peng has her first shot in the US Open quarterfinals on Tuesday. [Photo/Agencies]

China's Peng Shuai is scheduled to face Switzerland's Belinda Bencic in the first quarterfinal match of this year's women's singles draw at the US Open in New York on Tuesday. It's Peng's first shot in the US Open quarterfinals, a Grand Slam tournament she is playing in for the 10th time in her career. With China's superstar Li Na sidelined with an injury, other Chinese players in this year's draw were free to net some headlines. And Peng has done just that. Peng, 28, made short work of her opponents through the first four rounds, mowing down a group that included some of tennis' most well-known players. In her first match, Peng defeated fellow Chinese player Zheng Jie (6-3, 6-3), moved on to knock off Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska (6-3, 6-4), Italy's Roberta Vinci (6-4, 6-3) and most recently the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova (6-3, 6-4). The competition is due to get a bit stiffer as the tournament enters its second week. Peng is one of six female Chinese players who took part in this year's tournament.

jackfreifelder@chinadailyusa.com