Madrid After losing to Anastasia Potapova of Russia 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and forty minutes, Chinese tennis sensation Zheng Qinwen was ousted from the Madrid Open on Friday.

There are no Chinese players left in the men’s or women’s singles competitions in Madrid after Zheng’s elimination in the round of 64. On a bright and sunny day, the gold medalist from the Paris Olympics, who was seeded ninth, found it difficult to get into a rhythm against Potapova, who is rated 87th in the world.

Potapova was much more reliable, winning 64 percent of games on first serve to put Zheng under strain, while Zheng’s primary issue was her serve, as she only won 40 percent of the points in the opening set, according to Xinhua.

After falling down 5-3 in the first set, Zheng seemed to find a turning point when she broke Potapova’s serve. But in the tenth game, Potapova broke Zheng’s serve once again to win the first set 6-4.

After breaking Potapova in the third game of the second set, Zheng started to get her serve functioning, but it broke again in the seventh and ninth games.

In other Friday events, Sonay Kartal lost to 17th seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-1. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka defeated Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-4 to begin her title defense, while Elise Mertens defeated Camila Osoria 6-3, 6-3.

Not only did Zheng lose in the round of 64, but Moyuka Uchijima of Japan defeated 2022 champion Ons Jabeur 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Furthermore, Peyton Stearns upset 15th seeded Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, and 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova lost to Olga Danilovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4.