THAILAND Open second favourite, Petra Martic is out of the Hua Hin tournament after losing her first round match yesterday. The Croatian went down to 134th ranked 18-year-old Wang Xiyu of China in straight sets, 6-3 6-4. It leaves the bottom half of the draw wide open on a day where eight Chinese players took to the court across six matches.

In that clash, the world number 15 and second seed was expected to make light work of her opponent, but instead the 29-year-old headed to the changerooms 90 minutes later on the back of a strong performance from Xiyu. The Croatian’s serving was iffy at times, producing just two aces for seven double faults, and had an efficiency of just 58.9 per cent. She won just 63.6 per cent of first serve points, and could only win 23.3 per cent of Xiyu’s first serve points. On the other hand, Xiyu was very efficient, winning 76.6 per cent of her first serve points, saving all six break point opportunities for the top 20 player and then breaking twice herself from only three chances. Each break came at important times to ensure she was always a game ahead, and it showed when she was able to hold serve time and time again and advance to the second round.

Xiyu will now take on Austrian, Barbara Haas who downed Japan’s Chihiro Muramatsu from a set down, 3-6 7-5 6-3. In another big upset, Romania’s Patricia Tig defeated sixth seed Wang Yafan in three sets, while it was better news for third seed, Wang Qiang – the player who defeated Serena Williams at the Australian Open – rolling past compatriot Han Xinyun in less than an hour, 6-1 6-1. In another all Chinese battle, Peng Shuai defeated Yuan Yue 6-1 6-0 in just 47 minutes, the quickest match of the day, while Chinese Taipei’s En-Shuo Liang took just five minutes longer to oust Wang Xinyu, 6-3 6-0. In the remaining results, seventh seed, Zhu Lin defeated Russian Varvara Flink 6-4 6-2, while Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa came back from a set down to trounce India’s Ankita Raina in the last two sets for a 3-6 6-0 6-1 victory.

Just two Round of 32 matches remain for tomorrow’s action as number one seed and tournament favourite, Elina Svitolina and Polish fifth seed Magna Linette play their matches as the Round of 16 commences.

Round of 32 Results:

X. Wang (CHN) defeated [2] P. Martic (CRO) 6-3 6-4
[3] Q. Wang (CHN) defeated X. Han (CHN) 6-1 6-1
P. Tig (ROU) defeated [6] Y. Wang (CHN) 6-1 1-6 7-6
[7] L. Zhu (CHN) defeated V. Flink (RUS) 6-4 6-2
E. Liang (TAI) defeated X. Wang (CHN) 6-3 6-0
S. Peng (CHN) defeated Y. Yuan (CHN) 6-1 6-0
B. Haas (AUT) defeated C. Muramatsu (JPN) 3-6 7-5 6-3
K. Kawa (POL) defeated A. Raina (IND) 3-6 6-0 6-1