Olympic champion Chinese tennis player Zheng Qinwen out of Madrid Open

Chinese tennis player Zheng Qinwen fell out of the Madrid Open on Friday, losing 6-4, 6-4 to Russian player Anastasia Potapova within one hour and 40 minutes. Zheng's round of 64 exit means that no Chinese player remains for the men's and women's singles competition at Madrid. Paris Olympic gold medalist Zheng was seeded eighth but could not get going against world No. 87 Potapova on a hot and sunny afternoon.

The big issue for Zheng was her serve since she only managed to win 40 per cent of first-set points, whereas Potapova was much more consistent, winning 64 per cent of first-serve points and putting Zheng on the ropes. Zheng got the break she desperately needed to reach 5-3 behind, breaking Potapova's serve. But Potapova got Zheng's serve again in the 10th game to seal the first set 6-4.

In the second set, Zheng broke Potapova's serve in the third game and started to hold her own serve better, but she was broken in the seventh and ninth games as her serve faltered again.

In other results on Friday, 17th seed Elina Svitolina defeated Sonne Carthol 6-3, 6-1. Elise Mertens won 6-3, 6-3 against Camila Osoria, and top seed Aryna Sabalenka began her title defence with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win over Anna Blinkova.

Zheng was not the only seeded player to exit in the round of 64, as 2022 winner Ons Jabeur was defeated by Japan's Moyuka Uchijima 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Also, 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova lost to Serbia's Olga Danilovic 6-3, 6-4, while Peyton Stearns defeated 15th seed Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.