Chinese tennis star Wang Qiang. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese tennis star Wang Qiang bowed out in the second round of the 2016 French Open after she was defeated by 12th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, 6-1, 6-3, at the Stade Roland Garros on Thursday.
Wang's defeat signals that all Chinese players in the said Paris tournament are all eliminated at the moment.
It was the first time the two women met in a Singles match and the 27-year-old Spaniard was quick to overpower her 24-year-old rival, beating her black and blue in the first set, 6-1. Suarez Navarro won 12 straight points and three consecutive games to close out the set in overwhelming 22-minute fashion, which apparently surprised Wang.
Suarez Navarro never dropped a single service point during the first set, which proved to be too much for the inexperienced Wang, who is only competing in her second French Open main draw and her first time to advance in the second round.
The world no. 11's "consistency and precision were too much for Wang to handle as the Spain-native dictated play heavily", Vavel reported.
However, the world no. 73 tried to make a match of it in the second set as she came back from 5-1 down to make it 5-3. Wang pulled off a service break to prolong the agony, but Suarez Navarro eventually clinched it 6-3 after 65 minutes of play.
"I felt quite uncomfortable against such a high level clay-court expert like Navarro," Wang told reporters during the post-match interview, as per Xinhuanet. "She's the one having control the whole match and forced a lot of errors from me, especially in the first set."
Wang was the last Chinese woman standing in the Singles competitions after compatriots Zhang Shuai and Zheng Saisai were eliminated before her.
No. 65-ranked Zhang also dropped a second round straight sets game, this time to world no. 22 Samantha Stosur of Australia, 6-3, 6-4, the day before. Meanwhile, Zheng lost in the first round to 22nd seed Dominika Cibulková of Slovakia, 6-3, 6-1, two days prior.
Suarez Navarro will next meet Cibulková in the third round after the latter beat Croatia's Ana Konjuh in the second round, 6-4, 3-6, and 6-0.
