(MENAFN- Gulf Times) World
number one Garbine Muguruza fell at the first hurdle at the China Open
yesterday, with the Spaniard forced to retire due to illness during her
first-round match against Czech Barbora Strycova.
The Wimbledon
champion looked sluggish throughout and was broken in the first game
before losing the first set 6-1. She was trailing 2-0 in the second when
she decided she could not continue.
'I got a virus in Wuhan and I
did not practice in Beijing. I thought an extra day's rest would help,
and didn't want to pull out, Muguruza said. 'But I couldn't perform
today.
American qualifier Christina McHale served up another shock
when she beat Sloane Stephens 6-3 6-0 to send the US Open champion
crashing out in the first round of a tournament for the second week in a
row.
Stephens, who is seeded 15th in Beijing, was eliminated in the
first round of last week's Wuhan Open by China's Wang Qiang and was left
lamenting another poor performance.
'Just a tough day, she said.
'There's not really much to say about it. Just forget about it and move
on, try to have a better level for the next tournament.
France's
Alize Cornet eliminated former world number one Angelique Kerber 6-4 6-4
in the second round in an evenly contested battle that ended the
German's hopes of a first title since she won the US Open in 2016.
Kerber, the number 10 seed, battled hard from the baseline but was undone by Cornet's deft touches at the net.
Fifth-seed
Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark bucked the trend of upsets with a 6-2 6-2
win over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Romanian and world number
two Simona Halep's match against Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova was moved
to Wednesday after rain delayed play.
Unseeded Belgian Elise Mertens
pulled off a stunning comeback against Slovak eighth seed Dominika
Cibulkova, winning 7-6(4) 6-1 despite trailing 5-0 in the first set, and
faces Wuhan Open winner Caroline Garcia of France in round two.
Peng
Shuai also had to dig deep to get past American Shelby Rogers, but the
Chinese edged out her opponent 7-6(3) 3-6 7-5 in an epic match lasting
two hours and 48 minutes.
American Coco Vandeweghe progressed
serenely into the second round with a 6-2 6-2 win over Croatia's Donna
Vekic, as did Russian Elena Vesnina whose Polish opponent, Magda
Linette, retired after losing the first set 6-0.
RESULTS
Women
2nd round
Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 6-2, 6-2
Alize Cornet (FRA) bt Angelique Kerber (GER x10) 6-4, 6-4
1st round
Barbora Strycova (CZE) bt Garbine Muguruza (ESP x1) 6-1, 2-0 retired
Coco Vandeweghe (USA x14) bt Donna Vekic (CRO) 6-2, 6-2
Elena Vesnina (RUS) bt Magda Linette (POL) 6-0, 0-0 retired
Peng Shuai (CHN) bt Shelby Rogers (USA) 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-5
Christina McHale (USA) bt Sloane Stephens (USA x15) 6-3, 6-0
Varvara Lepchenko (USA) bt Lesya Tsurenko (UKR) 5-7, 6-4, 6-2
Elise Mertens (BEL) bt Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x8) 7-6 (7/4), 6-1
MENAFN0210201700670000ID1095915185
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