Fran Jones, the British No 4, was seeded 7th at the WTA 250 Guangzhou Open, but suffered an early defeat at the hands of wild-card Wang Xiyu, going down, 6-4 6-4, to the Chinese on Monday in the 1st-round.
While Jones had the higher ranking at No 85, Wang, ranked 145, came into the contest with a slight edge, having a bolstered a disappointing year at tour level with some solid results at ITF tournaments, and managing one main draw win during the Asian swing.
Wang won Guangzhou in 2023, and made the quarter-final here last year, so she had a lot on the line, playing in front of her home fans, but Jones, nevertheless, was the slight favourite 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, and then taking a break before returning to the tour in China.
It was the former champ Wang, though, who powered past Jones in their Guangzhou opener after an hour and 58 minutes of play in what proved to be a pretty tight contest.
Wang advances to meet Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who took the scenic route before halting Diane Parry’s come-back attempt, and improving to 2-1 overall against the Frenchwoman after triumphing in a seesaw 6-4 6-7(7) 6-2 encounter.
Cocciaretto led by a set and 4-0, and held 5 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 2nd-round, firing 8 aces and capitalising on the 9 double-faults produced by 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, to edge the No 1 seed in 2 tiebreak sets, recording her 4th upset of 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 at the Jinan WTA 125 over the past month.
Another qualifier, Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah of France, also posted an upset in defeating No 8 seed, Polina Kudermetova of Russia, 1-6 6-1 6-2.
The Frenchwoman faces American Katie Volynets, who outlasted Katarzyna Kawa from Poland, 4-6 6-2 6-2, in an all-qualifier encounter.
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 2-5 down in the second, where she also saved 2 set points while trailing, 5-4.
The American moves on to meet Camila Osorio from Colombia, who was an easy 6-1 6-2 winner over Italian Lucia Bronzetti.
The 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 a charge from 0-3 down to 4-4 in the third set.
Her next opponent, Ella Seidel of Germany, dropped just 4 games against Leolia Jeanjean, winning through, 6-2 6-2, and avenging a loss to the Frenchwoman in Australian Open qualifying in January.
Anna Bondar of Hungary also advanced, edging past wild-card 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 now will take on American qualifier Claire Liu, who upset No 4 seed Alexandra Eala from the Philippines, 2-6 6-4 6-4, her first tour-level win in 19 months.
Liu came from 2-4 down in the second set and 1-3 down in the third to pull of the win, 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 No 305.
Another American, Caty McNally, came through a three-set battle of her own against qualifier Kaja Juvan, 6-3 1-6 6-3, scoring her first win over the Slovenian in 3 meetings, and setting up a 2nd-round encounter with Ajla Tomjlanovic, after the Australian upset 5th-seeded Alicia Parks, also from the USA, 7-5 7-5.
Also through to round 2 on Tuesday was wild-card Zhang Shuai, who reprised her Beijing defeat of Anastasia Zakharova 5 weeks ago with another win over the Russian, 6-4 6-1.
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