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Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen rebuked rowdy fans at her home tournament on Saturday before opponent Anna Kalinskaya retired with injury to give the Chinese player a 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 3-0 victory.
Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen rebuked rowdy fans at her home tournament on Saturday before opponent Anna Kalinskaya retired with injury to give the Chinese player a 6-7 , 6-4, 3-0 victory.
A strong breeze and a noisy crowd made for tense rallies on a chilly centre court in Beijing, with the umpire stepping in to warn people to stop moving around in the stands during play. During a tight first-set tie-break, Zheng – a beloved figure in her home country – twice was heard telling spectators to"stop shouting" as she stepped up to serve.
"I thought the first set in particular was really difficult," Zheng told the crowd in an on-court interview after the two-hour-and-22-minute match. Chants for Zheng rang through the wind-rattled stadium before most points, with fans occasionally yelling at each other to quieten down. After levelling in the second set, the world number 54 was handed a lifeline when Russia's Kalinskaya retired three games down in the third due to injury.
Earlier, Coco Gauff kept her composure to beat Camila Osorio 7-6 , 4-6, 6-2, overcoming shaky serving to survive the second round. The Colombian, ranked 66th, put up a formidable fight after double-faulting to lose a testy first-set tie-break, though she needed medicine to push through trouble with her back. Osorio saved two match points but Gauff, the world No 4, dug deep, rescuing long rallies with a solid backhand and cross-court saves.
"It was tough, it wasn't the cleanest," said the 22-year-old American after the two-hour-and-18-minute match. She next faces either Spain's Cristina Bucsa or Chinese teenager Sun Xinran, world number 582. Later on Saturday world No 1 Elena Rybakina is scheduled to play Armenia's 118th-ranked Alina Charaeva in the night session. In the men's draw, top seed Alexander Zverev plays home hope Shang Juncheng for a chance to face Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal.
Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev both needed three sets to advance and will play each other in the last eight.
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