Aussie duo and new world number one fall at China Open
Kimberley Birrell and Storm Hunter are knocked out at the China Open second round, along with newly minted world number one Elena Rybakina.
Australian duo Kimberly Birrell and Storm Hunter were both knocked out of the China Open during the second round, bringing the count of Australian women's participants to just one. Birrell, ranked 41st, lost 6-4, 6-4 to Czech player Marie Bouzkova. The 28-year-old, who recently won the Korea Open, led 3-1 in the first set before succumbing to a double break down and losing the match.
Bouzkova, the 18th seed, faces Chinese 2024 Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen next. Hunter, the 182nd-ranked 21st seed, was swept aside by Greek player Maria Sakkari 6-2, 6-2 in just 73 minutes. The Australian's defeat marked a poor start to her reign as the world number one as she lost her first match since winning the US Open title.
The most surprising outcome was that newly crowned world number one Elena Rybakina was defeated 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 by unseeded Alina Charaeva, who broke the record for the lowest-ranked competitor to defeat a world number one since the WTA rankings were introduced in 1975. Other victories included Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek, Ann Li, and Jelena Ostapenko.
Written by urgent.news from ABC News AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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