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Qinwen Zheng defeated Alycia Parks in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Monday. The world no. 25 needed an hour and 41 minutes to notch a straightforward 6-4, 6-4 win for herself against the American. Both players won a high percentage of first-serve points.
Parks won 79% of her first-serve points while Zheng won 87%. However, Zheng fared better when it came to winning second-serve points, claiming 16 of the 30 second-serve points played. The 20-year-old also won 19 of 34 points on return on Parks’ second serve.
Parks was also let down by the 11 double faults she hit while her opponent had nine fewer of those. Zheng also saved the sole break point she faced while securing a break each in each set to pull through.
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix: Qinwen Zheng's rivalry with Iga Swiatek renewed
In the next round, Zheng will face the top-seeded Iga Swiatek.
The Pole, who’s defending her 2022 title this week has won both of their two previous matches. Both these matches were played in 2022, at Roland Garros and the San Diego Open. However, Zheng did take the clashes to the distance before Swiatek was able to get the win.
Talking about her meeting Swiatek again, Zheng said, “First time when I meet her, she was no. 1 in the world, I was coming from nowhere. First time for me to play in that atmosphere. I think now I get little bit more experience.
I wish in the next match I can have good performance. I want to show my best tennis. You know, in tennis you never know what's going to happen. That's the beauty of tennis”. Meanwhile, in the all-qualifiers’ first-round match between Cristina Bucsa and Tamara Korpatsch, Bucsa prevailed 3-6, 6-4, 6-0.
The Spaniard needed two hours and 20 minutes to get the win over the local. In the second round, Bucsa will play either seventh seed Daria Kasatkina or fellow countrywoman, Paula Badosa. Donna Vekic also moved into the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
On Monday, the Croat got through 7-6(7), 7-6(5) against Ekaterina Alexandrova. Vekic needed a little over two hours for the win. She now awaits Karolina Pliskova or eighth seed Maria Sakkari. Photo Credit: Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Twitter