Hong Kong Tennis Open: Chinese hopes go up in smoke as Wang Xinyu limps out in second round
- Fourth seed sees her service game broken eight times in sloppy 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 loss to Sara Sorribes Tormo at Victoria Park
- Long-term knee injury threatens to end Wang’s season early, as she admits ‘the body comes first’ with one eye on 2024
Another seed bit the dust on Thursday at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open, with China’s injury-hampered Wang Xinyu turfed out in three sets by Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.
Fourth seed Wang saw her service game broken 8 times in what was a sloppy outing for both players, losing 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in two hours and 15 minutes on Centre Court at the Victoria Park Tennis Stadium.
The world No 32 struggled with a long-term left knee injury, which required strapping, and hinted she could now end her season early.
“I’ve had this injury for a while now and you cannot really get rest because I’ve been playing tournaments, and playing good, so I’ve been going deeper,” Wang said after her loss.
“It’s good to keep pushing and play maybe one or two more tournaments this year. If you can be seeded for next year at the [grand] slams it will be good, but I think the body comes first, let’s see.”
Wang will have fancied her chances of glory this week, given the top seed Victoria Azarenka’s injury withdrawal, and defending champion Dayana Yastremska’s first-round exit.
“I’m sad I cannot play a few more matches because I enjoy playing here but you have to move on,” she added. “It’s nice to be here. It’s my first time playing at the tournament, but I live in Shenzhen so I’m very close. I come into Hong Kong a lot, I like the city.”
Hong Kong Tennis Open second seed survives scare in marathon match
In a rematch of their US Open second-round clash, which Wang won during her run to the last 16 in September, the 22-year-old’s service was broken four times – three of them to love – in a dire opening set which Sorribes Tormo eventually took, having been broken three times herself.
French Open doubles champion Wang then took a toilet break, and if she had hoped for a psychological boost, it seemed to pay off. She soon got a double break for a 5-2 lead in the second set, and eventually served it out after losing her own service one more time.
But Wang then went a double break down in the decider as 27-year-old Sorribes Tormo closed in on the win.
The Chinese No 2 broke back one more time to threaten an unlikely comeback, but her slim hopes were quickly snuffed out when she was broken again, and the match limped to its conclusion.
“I felt like the match depended on how I played, because Sara is a fighter, she defends well. The conditions here really fit her game,” Wang said of a match played in 25-degree temperatures under cover of cloud in Causeway Bay.
“The second set I managed to play with a little bit more patience. I was also coming in and finishing with the volley. But the beginning of the third set kind of went too fast. It was hard to get back the rhythm.
“It’s tough when somebody is standing behind [the baseline] so much, and you really have to make a good angle and change the serve with different pace. It was just tough.”
The second seed also fell on Thursday night, with 2017 Hong Kong Open champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia beating Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 7-5, 1-6, 6-1.
In the first match of the afternoon on Court 1, sixth seed Martina Trevisan of Italy beat Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3.
Third seed Elise Mertens beat Sofya Lansere 6-3, 7-6(5), while former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez beat Mirra Andreeva 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.
