China's Zhang, Peng bow out from French Open second round

PARIS, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Shuai and Peng Shuai both crashed out from the second round here on Thursday, leaving Wang Qiang as the only Chinese player still active at the 2018 French Open.

Zhang lost to Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu, who trained with her for some time, 6-3, 6-4. Peng fell short 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 against seventh-seeded Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia.

Zhang, in anticipation of tying her best record of third round at Roland Garros set one year ago, lost a grueling 15-minute ninth game featuring many deuces, before conceding the first set 6-3.

The Romanian maintained her momentum in the second set to build a 5-3 lead into her match-winning service.

Zhang displayed her resilience to save one match point from Begu before cutting the deficit to 5-4. However, Begu didn't let slip away the chance again with two match points in hand, sealing the win with a high-quality backhand.

Peng led 2-1 in three previous head-to-heads against local favorite Garcia, who she described as "hitting every ball quite hard".

Peng was pretty patient in rallies to search for winners, sharing the first six games with Garcia after holding their respective serves.

Garcia broke for the first time throughout the match in the seventh game, and wrapped up the first set with a powerful backhand.

Too many errors cost Garcia the second set to Peng, but the French top-ranked player bounced back strongly in the third set and finally tasted the victory before home crowds.

Garcia's attack could be seen from her 31 winners and 39 unforced errors. She will meet Begu in the next round.

Wang will next face Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan on Friday. Enditem