US Open: Olympic tennis champion Zheng Qinwen powers her way through tough Anisimova test
- Amanda Anisimova takes first set, before China’s gold medallist bounces back to reach second round
Zheng Qinwen bounced back from losing her first set at this year’s US Open to see off American wild card Amanda Anisimova in New York on Monday.
The Olympic champion, who said before the tournament that all she wanted to do was keep “winning, winning, winning”, came through some early service woes to win her first round encounter 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
The seventh seed, a quarter-finalist in New York last year, won 73 per cent of her first-serve points and converted six of her 11 breakpoint chances during a two hour 20-minute match at Louis Armstrong Stadium where she was broken four times.
“She was hitting the ball really good today, everything was going to the side and in at the beginning. I couldn’t do anything,” Zheng said. “The further the match goes I started to find my rhythm on the hard court. In the second set I really believed in my shots.
“I started to be more consistent and found more percentage in my serve. Little by little I got into it, I want to say a really good job from Amanda.”
Anisimova raced out to a 5-1 double break lead in the first set but then had to dig deep as Zheng broke back at love, turned aside three set points on her next serve and then broke again to get the match back on serve.
