Zheng Jie out of China Open
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Xinhua, October 6, 2011
Home singles players' advance in the China Open WTA tournament finally came to a halt when the former Wimbledon and Australian Open semifinalst Zheng Jie lost to Agnieszka Radvanska of Poland in second round on Wednesday.
Zheng showed battling qualities in the second set but still came up short against the world number 12 Radvanska, losing at 6-1, 6-4.
The local female players did not have good fortunes in the event when five of them, led by French Open champion and world number six Li Na, bundled out of the elite tournament in the opening round and left Zheng the sole home player in the next round.
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Former Wimbledon and Australian Open semifinalst Zheng Jie lost to Agnieszka Radvanska of Poland in second round on Wednesday. [Sina.com.cn] |
Zheng, who made last four at Wimbledon in 2008 and 2010 Australian Open, survived the first round by rallying past Italian Alberta Brianti, but playing both singles and doubles seemed to exhaust her as she looked rusty when taking on the 22-year-old Pole.
"I think we play against each other a long time ago so I knew I have to be focused right from the beginning and I did that. I was playing really good in the first set but in the second set she starts to play much better and I was having trouble, it was tight games," said Radvanska.
"So I'm glad I could close the match in two sets. I was just being here for two days, especially playing on a new court, it's very tough," she added.
Radvanska, who has just been crowned at Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo a week ago, had total control in the opening set, securing two breaks to claim at 6-1.
The second set saw a much grittier Zheng and the partisan fans in the newly built National Tennis Stadium hailed the 28-year-old in a frenzy way. But all did no good to help Zheng, a once No. 15, but now ranked 72nd in the world.
Zheng did notch up a break in the second set, but Radvanska, the 2009 China Open runner-up, had two to outclass Zheng before rounding up the match lasting just one hour and 17 minutes.
"Radvanska is not a strong player, so when she plays, she plays smart. In the first set she took control of the rhythm, which made it tough for me to play. The second set I adjusted the tactics and it worked but I still lost the match. Overall she is better than me," Zheng said.
"All the Chinese players want to have good results here and we gave it all although we all lost. I think maybe it's because we play all year long and feel tired at the end of the season and the pressure of playing home is also a contributing factor for the failure, hopefully we can do it better next year."
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