Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen falls in Madrid Open round of 64

Madrid, April 26 (IANS) Chinese tennis star Zheng Qinwen was eliminated from the Madrid Open on Friday, suffering a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Russia's Anastasia Potapova in a match that lasted one hour and 40 minutes.

Zheng's exit in the round of 64 leaves no Chinese players remaining in either the men's or women's singles tournaments in Madrid. The gold medallist from the Paris Olympics was seeded eighth but struggled to find her rhythm against Potapova, ranked 87th in the world, on a warm and sunny afternoon.

Zheng's main problem was with her serve, as she managed to win just 40 percent of points in the first set, while Potapova was much more consistent, winning 64 percent of points on first serve to keep Zheng under pressure, reports Xinhua.

Zheng appeared to find a turning point when she broke Potapova's serve while trailing 5-3 in the first set. However, Potapova broke Zheng's serve again in the 10th game to take the first set 6-4.

In the second set, Zheng broke Potapova in the third game and began to get her serve working well but was broken in the seventh and ninth games, as her serve again fell apart.

Other results on Friday saw 17th seed Elina Svitolina beat Sonay Kartal 6-3, 6-1. Elise Mertens won 6-3, 6-3 against Camila Osoria, and top seed Aryna Sabalenka started her title defense with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 victory over Anna Blinkova.

Zheng wasn't the only seed to exit in the round of 64, as 2022 winner Ons Jabeur was upset by Moyuka Uchijima of Japan 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Additionally, 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova fell to Serbia's Olga Danilovic 6-3, 6-4, while Peyton Stearns defeated 15th seeded Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.

--IANS

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