Elena Rybakina reacts to destroying Zheng Qinwen in Beijing

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Elena Rybakina admitted she was "a bit nervous" going into the match against Zheng Qinwen and revealed her goal was "just to focus point by point." On Monday, No 5 seed Rybakina made quite an impressive start to her Beijing campaign as she dismantled Chinese No 1 Zheng 6-1 6-2. Going into the match, the expectation was that Rybakina and Zheng would probably have a tight battle. But Rybakina turned it into a completely one-sided match as she easily beat world No 23 Zheng. "First matches, they're always difficult. Last match I played was at US Open, so I was kind of a bit nervous more because I didn't have so many matches in the past few weeks. I was feeling well on the practices. I was just trying to focus point by point, focus on my serve, which [isn't affected] by the opponent. I started pretty well the match, so it gave me big confidence for the whole game," Rybakina said after the match, via the WTA website.

Elena Rybakina© Getty Images Sport - Emmanuel Wong   Rybakina praises Zheng

Before coming to Beijing, Zheng won the gold medal at the Asian Games. “I know Qinwen just played Asian games. It’s not easy. I congratulate her on such a win. I’m just happy to be back. Thank you so much everyone who came and supported," Rybakina also said during her on-court interview. Against Zheng, Rybakina got off to an outstanding start as she claimed back-to-back breaks and won the first five games for a comfortable 5-1 lead. Zheng finally got on the board in the sixth game but didn't change much as Rybakina routinely served out for the first set in the following game. In the second set, Zheng served out the first game before Rybakina claimed back-to-back breaks and won five games in a row to take a 5-1 lead. In the seventh game, Rybakina converted her first match point to complete a straight-set win over Zheng.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/1gNMyTs

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