British No. 4 Fran Jones was seeded seventh at the WTA 250 Guangzhou Open but suffered an early defeat at the hands of wildcard Wang Xiyu, going down 6-4 6-4 to the Chinese in the first round on Monday.
While Jones had the higher ranking at No. 85, Wang, ranked 145th, came into the match with a slight lead, having backed up a disappointing year at tour level with some solid results at ITF tournaments, and notched one main-draw win during the Asian swing.
Wang won Guangzhou in 2023 and reached the quarter-finals here last year, so she had a lot at stake playing in front of her home fans, but Jones was nevertheless the slight favorite going into the match.
The Brit had made decent runs to the quarter-finals in Guadalajara and the semi-finals in São Paulo in September, then took a break before returning to the tour in China.
However, it was former champion Wang who edged past Jones after an hour and 58 minutes of play in their Guangzhou opener in what turned out to be a pretty tight match.
Wang heads out to meet Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who took the scenic route before halting Diane Parry’s comeback attempt to improve to 2-1 overall against the Frenchwoman after triumphing in a see-saw 6-4 6-7(7) 6-2 encounter.
Cocciaretto led by a set and 4-0, and had five match points in the second set, two at 5-4 and three in the tiebreak, before getting herself over the line in a decider.
Qualifier Lulu Sun upset top seed Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in 2 tiebreak sets to advance to the 2nd round in Guangzhou
WTAtennis.com
Qualifier Lulu Sun of New Zealand upset top seed Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain, 7-6(3) 7-6(2), to also advance to the second round, firing 8 aces and taking advantage of 9 double faults from the Spaniard, who also faced 15 break points.
Sun came from 2-4 down in the first set and 0-3 down in the second, leaving the No. 1 seed behind in 2 tiebreak sets, marking her 4th time against a No. 1 seed in her past 4 tournaments, having also defeated Alexandra Eala at the Jingshan WTA 125, Iva Jovic at the Suzhou WTA 125 and Anastasia Zakharova in the past month at Jinan WTA 125.
Another qualifier, Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah of France, also caused upset as she defeated No. 8 seed, Polina Kudermetova of Russia, 1-6 6-1 6-2.
The Frenchwoman will face American Katie Volynets, who defeated Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in a qualifying match.
No. 2 seed Ann Li of the United States had to come from behind in both sets against Andorran lucky loser Jimenez Kasintseva to win 6-4 7-6(4).
Li came from 1-3 down in the first set and from 2-5 down in the second, where she also saved 2 set points while trailing, 5-4.
The American next meets Camila Osorio from Colombia, who won 6-1, 6-2 against the Italian Lucia Bronzetti.
No. 6 seed and 2018 finalist Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan held off former junior No. 1 Alina Korneeva, an 18-year-old Russian qualifier, 7-6(2) 4-6 6-4.
Putintseva led 4-0 in the first set but had to save a set point before sealing it in the breaker, while Korneeva also made an attack from 0-3 to 4-4 in the third set.
Her next opponent, Germany’s Ella Seidel, dropped just four games against Leolia Jeanjean, winning 6-2, 6-2 and avenging a loss to the Frenchwoman in qualifying for the Australian Open in January.
Hungary’s Anna Bondar also advanced, past wildcard Guo Hanyu in a third-set tiebreak, 6-3 3-6 7-6(4), after coming from 1-3 down in the decider, and she will now face American qualifier Claire Liu, who upset No. 4 seed Alexandra Eala of the Philippines 2-6 6-4 6-4, her first win at tour level in 19 months.
Liu came from 2-4 down in the second set and 1-3 down in the third to take the victory, which was her first at tour level since Miami 2024.
The former No. 52 ended her 2024 season after Roland Garros due to injury and is now ranked 305th.
Another American, Caty McNally, came through on her own through a three-set battle against qualifier Kaja Juvan, 6-3 1-6 6-3, scoring her first win over the Slovenian in three meetings and setting up a second-round meeting with Ajla Tomjlanovic after the Australian beat fifth-seeded Alicia Parks, also from the US, 7-5 7-5 upset.
Also through to Round 2 on Tuesday was wildcard Zhang Shuai, who rebounded from her Beijing defeat to Anastasia Zakharova five weeks ago with another victory over the Russian, 6-4 6-1.
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