By Martyn Herman LONDON (Reuters) -China’s Zheng Qinwen struck gold on the red clay of Paris and reached the Australian Open final on hard courts last year but she has yet to solve the puzzle of Wimbledon’s grass. It looked a little ominous for the 22-year-old fifth seed when she was drawn to face Czech […]
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Tennis-Olympic champion Zheng still to solve grass court puzzle
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By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) -China’s Zheng Qinwen struck gold on the red clay of Paris and reached the Australian Open final on hard courts last year but she has yet to solve the puzzle of Wimbledon’s grass.
It looked a little ominous for the 22-year-old fifth seed when she was drawn to face Czech doubles specialist Katerina Siniakova in the opening round, a player to whom she had lost twice before on grass, including at Wimbledon two years ago.
And so it proved as Zheng suffered a third successive Wimbledon first-round exit, going down 7-5 4-6 6-1.
“I believe if I get through the first match, I will start to play better and better (on grass),” Zheng, who proved she could play on grass by beating Britain’s Emma Raducanu on the way to the semi-final at Queen’s Club last month, told reporters.
“The problem is the first match for me is complicated. But also for myself, I made the match complicated.”
Especially complicated against a craft player who knows her way around the lawns of London SW19. Siniakova is a three-time Wimbledon doubles champion and she utilised her net game to great effect to subdue Zheng.
She battled back from a 3-5 deficit to win the first set and although Zheng responded to win the second on a muggy Court Three, Siniakova ran away with the decider.
“I don’t consider that it’s such a challenge for me to play on grass,” Zheng said. “Maybe it’s I just should put my level a bit more high today because I gave her a lot on my service games, especially when I was leading 5-3 in the first set.
“I had a lot of chances but just didn’t take them. I’m not going to let this get into my head. It’s just another match I lost here on grass, okay. I’m just going to see what’s coming in the future, and I will always keep fighting.”
Zheng’s defeat, the second shock of the day after American Jessica Pegula, the third seed, was dismantled 6-2 6-3 by Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto, meant the second-round showdown with four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka will not happen.
Siniakova’s victory meant she avoided four successive Grand Slam first-round losses and she will fancy her chances of another upset against Japan’s Osaka.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond and Toby Davis)