On January 15th, Beijing time, the first round of the 2025 Australian Open women's singles main draw featured a focal match between Zheng Qinwen and Siegemund. In the end, Zheng Qinwen lost two consecutive sets 0-2 to Siegemund, causing a major upset and being eliminated in the second round! She is also the first top 5 seeded player to be eliminated from the women's singles, which is quite chaotic.
In the first round, Zheng Qinwen won straight sets, although the first set was won with some difficulty, the second set was still easily taken, showing some slow start but not affecting the result of the match! As the runner-up of the previous year and the No. 5 seed this year, how far can Zheng Qinwen go this time?
Siegemund is a German player who fought hard for three sets to reverse and advance in the first round. Currently, her world ranking is only 97th, which is quite a gap compared to Zheng Qinwen's No. 5 ranking! The two were originally scheduled to face each other before, but due to Zheng Qinwen's withdrawal from the United Cup, this Australian Open match is actually their first career encounter. For Zheng Qinwen, her strength is obviously much stronger, and there should be no problem with advancing.
In the first set, Zheng Qinwen's first serve success rate was not high, relying on her second serve to struggle to hold serve. In the second game, Siegemund also struggled to hold serve! In the third game, Zheng Qinwen saved a break point and held serve again. In the fourth and eighth games, Zheng Qinwen got break points but failed to convert them. Instead, Siegemund broke first in the ninth game. Zheng Qinwen broke back in the tenth game, followed by both holding serve to 6-6! In the tiebreak battle, Zheng Qinwen led 3-2 but then lost five points in a row, losing the tiebreak 3-7 and falling behind 0-1 in the big score. The two played for 80 minutes in the first set alone.
In the second set, Siegemund started with a double hold and break to lead 2-0! In the third game, Zheng Qinwen struggled to break back to 1-2. In the fourth game, Zheng Qinwen was warned again, and Siegemund broke again to lead 3-1, then held serve to 4-1. In the ninth game, Siegemund converted the serve-to-win game, winning 6-3, and defeated Zheng Qinwen 2-0 in the big score.