Chinese tennis player Zheng Qinwen was eliminated from the WTA 1000 Rome singles tournament on May 9 local time, losing 1-2 to former French Open champion and Latvian star Jelena Ostapenko in the third round, ending her run before the Round of 16.
Since returning from injury this season, Zheng made her clay debut at the WTA 1000 Madrid Open, where she also exited in the third round after falling to Kazakh player Elena Rybakina. Rome marks her second clay-court event of the year. Last year, Zheng achieved a major breakthrough at this tournament, defeating Belarusian star Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals to reach the semifinals of a WTA 1000 clay event for the first time.
Zheng, currently ranked No. 32 in the world, faced Ostapenko (No. 36) for the first time on clay. In their three previous encounters, Zheng had won all matches. The first set saw Ostapenko break in the third game, but Zheng rallied from 2-4 down to win four consecutive games, taking the set 6-4.
The second set was more closely contested. After a lengthy deuce battle—featuring seven deuces in the tenth game—Ostapenko secured a crucial break to level the match at 6-4. In the deciding set, Ostapenko broke again with aggressive attacking play, ultimately taking it 6-4 to claim her first career victory over Zheng. The match lasted 2 hours and 28 minutes.
According to post-match statistics, Zheng fired 14 aces, with a 69% first-serve percentage and an impressive 79% first-serve points won.
After the match, Zheng acknowledged her opponent’s pressure on her second serve. “I think my serve was decent, but overall, my return game and defense let me down,” she said. “That’s something I need to work on when I get back to practice.”