In the third round of the 2023 WTA Rome Masters, the Chinese women's tennis ushered in good news, Wang Xiyu and Zheng Qinwen have advanced to the round of 16, of which Wang Xiyu narrowly defeated Townsend 2-1, and Zheng Qinwen swept Bondal 2-0, so that Wang Xiyu and Zheng Qinwen will play a derby in the 1/8 final, and the Chinese women's tennis also locked a place in the top 8 in advance.
Wang Xiyu was beaten 6-0 in a single set! Adversity broke out and narrowly won 2-1
Wang Xiyu took the lead against Townsend, and in recent times, Wang Xiyu's performance is still very good, reaching the third round of the last Madrid Masters, reaching the round of 32 in two consecutive 1000 tournaments, making another big breakthrough in his career.
After the start of the match, Wang Xiyu was still a little slow and hot, and Townsend took the lead to complete the break, but Wang Xiyu quickly adjusted his form and quickly completed the break, and then maintained the lead to win the first set 6-2.
Just when everyone thought that Wang Xiyu would continue to storm, there was an unexpected situation in the second set, Wang Xiyu made consecutive mistakes, and Townsend seized the opportunity to launch a fierce attack, breaking serve with serve, winning 6 consecutive games, and directly slamming a wave of 6-0 to win a set.
In the tiebreaker, Townsend once again took the initiative, once leading 5-3, Wang Xiyu broke out after falling behind, winning four consecutive games and winning another set 7-5, thus narrowly winning 2-1 on aggregate to advance to the round of 16 first, while also creating his best career record in 1,000 matches.
Zheng Qinwen advanced to the round of 16 2-0 and received a prize of 300,000 yuan
Zheng Qinwen against Hungary's Bondar, because Zheng Qinwen has defeated Bondal before, so the outside world is generally optimistic that Zheng Qinwen will win.
In the first set, Zheng Qinwen served first and broke serve in the second game, Zheng Qinwen directly played a wave of 3-0 in the first three games, after which Zheng Qinwen maintained his lead and extended the game to 5-2. In the 8th game, Zheng Qinwen made a mistake when he took the break point first, then Bondal completed the serve, in the 9th game, Bondal achieved the break, and in the 10th game, Bondal completed the serve again to tie the game to a 5-5 draw.
After that, the two completed their respective serves, tied the game to 6-6, and then entered the tie-break, Cheng Qinwen scored consecutive attacks, Bondar was a series of mistakes, Cheng Qinwen soon won the first set 7-2.
In the second set, the two staged a mutual break, Zheng Qinwen took the lead to complete the break, then Bondar completed the break, the first 8 games, the two fought to a 4-4 draw, in the 9th game, Zheng Qinwen completed the break, 5-4 lead, in the 10th game, Zheng Qinwen grasped the serve to win the game, 6-4 to win another set, thus winning 2-0 on aggregate and successfully advancing to the round of 16.
After winning this match, Zheng Qinwen received 120 points and 39,130 euros (about 300,000 yuan) in prize money, and immediately rose to 18th place in the world ranking.
In the next 1/8 final, Zheng Qinwen and Wang Xiyu will play a derby, if Wang Xiyu wins, he will once again refresh his career best, if Zheng Qinwen wins, it will be closer and closer to his goal of the world's top 10 set at the beginning of the year.
The last time a Chinese player reached the top 8 of the Rome Masters was Li Na and Zhang Shuai in 2014, and after 9 years, Chinese players appeared again in the top 8 of the Rome Masters, so whether Zheng Qinwen wins or Wang Xiyu wins, both will make new history.