Wang Xinyu out of Linz singles, into doubles semis with Zheng
- Chinese 20-year-old loses to Alison Riske after shocking Emma Raducanu in previous round
- Pair overcome Russian duo Ekaterina Alexandrova and Yana Sizikova for place in last four
China’s Wang Xinyu could not follow up her first win over a world top 20 opponent with a place in the semi-finals at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz, losing to former world top 20 player Alison Riske in straight sets.
Wang, who rose to a career high world No 106 in this week’s standing updates and is set to enter the top 100 for the first time next week, had earned her match with Riske after beating US Open champion and world No 20 Emma Raducanu in the round of 16.
The match with Raducanu went three sets and lasted more than two and a half hours, with the 20-year-old, who came through qualifying, also playing in the doubles in Austria. This match was her fifth in five days.
Riske made swift work of Wang with the US eighth seed winning 6-3, 7-5 in an hour and 28 minutes to progress to the final four at the last event of the season. Wang was 5-2 up in the second set before Riske came back.
The 31-year-old was a Wimbledon singles quarter-finalist in 2019 and has a career high world ranking of No 19 that November.
In the doubles, Wang and Zheng – China’s No 2 singles player – made it to the semi-finals with a routine win over their Russian opponents Ekaterina Alexandrova and Yana Sizikova.
Wang Xinyu beats Emma Raducanu at Linz Open for first top 20 win
The Chinese pair won in straight sets – 6-3, 6-3 – in an hour and 11 minutes.
They now move on to the semi-finals, where they will face the second seeds Georgia’s Oksana Kalashnikova and Japan’s Miyu Kato.
Zheng and Wang won the doubles title at the Courmayeur Open in Italy earlier this month and the Columbus 125 doubles in September. This was their ninth consecutive match win.
