Zheng Qinwen ruled out of Australian Open after loss to Laura Siegemund

Zheng Qinwen is out of the Australian Open after a shock defeat to German Laura Siegemund. Zheng, the No. 5 seed and last year’s beaten finalist, lost 7-6(3), 6-3 after her serve collapsed in the fourth game of the second set.

Zheng, who had clawed back the match at 0-2, received a time violation from referee Thomas Sweeney before serving two double faults to go down 3-1. Siegemund, 36, has now kept his cool to take down one of 2024’s star players.

“I couldn’t take the time. So I don’t know if I’m late or early,” Zheng said during his press conference.

“I was so surprised to get that second serve because that had never happened to me before.”

At 1-2, 15-30, Sweeney committed his second violation of the match. Zheng remonstrated with the referee, referencing what she had done in her press conference: she couldn’t see the clock. As a result, she lost her first serve and hit a second serve on the ground to go down 15-40. Although she saved the first break point with an ace, she then double-faulted to lose serve and give Siegemund control of the set.

“When I got to the second set, I mean, at that point the time limit distracted me. I felt like today was generally a tough day for me,” Zheng said.

Siegemund’s variety and disruptive baseline rhythm led to a tough performance from Zheng throughout the first set, but the 22-year-old, who won Olympic singles gold in Paris this summer, used her serve to good use in tight moments. She had seven aces and just one double fault, winning a game point with an ace or unreturned serve on several occasions. She then hit four and two aces and double faults respectively in the second set, the latter two in the game that decided the match.

Zheng, who restarts his serve more frequently than most players, did so repeatedly throughout the match despite his serve being secure when his movement was fluid. It was Siegemund who finished with a superior serving performance, hitting 80 percent of his first serves to Zheng’s 56 percent and winning 69 percent of points behind them to 64.

The deciding factor was forced errors, with Siegemund stretching Zheng often enough to extract 31 errors from his opponent while conceding just 13.

Siegemund nervelessly held her own serve at 5-3, using the drop shots and off-speed slices that had carried her so well. A final short ball thrown to midfield cut down a baseline rally she was late in, giving Zheng no angle. She fired a drop shot into the tram tracks and Siegemund fell to the ground in joy.

“The biggest upset of this year’s Australian Open”

Analysis by tennis writer Charlie Eccleshare

Zheng’s departure will leave a big void at this year’s Australian Open. She is a hugely popular player here with Melbourne’s large Chinese population and introduced herself to a wider audience when she played in last year’s finals.

She was beaten on that occasion by Aryna Sabalenka, and the world number 1 looks to be one of the big beneficiaries of Zheng’s early elimination at this year’s event.

Both teams were seeded to meet in the quarterfinals, but the highest seeds Sabalenka could meet in the final eight are either Diana Shnaider (No. 21) or Donna Vekic (No. 18).

For Zheng, the loss will mean a drop in ranking from No. 5 to No. 7, or possibly lower depending on the results of the players just below her. Considering his ranking and presence here last year, this is the biggest surprise of this year’s Australian Open so far.

(David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)