Elena Rybakina soared past home player Qinwen Zheng in the first round of the WTA China Open. The Kazakhstani player won in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.

Prior to this match, the fifth seed led their head-to-head 1-0 after defeating Zheng on her way to the 2022 Wimbledon title. However, the Chinese player has been showing a lot of potential recently, particularly when she made it to the quarter-finals of the US Open last month.

However, Rybakina was able to dominate the match from the beginning, winning her first service game 40-0 and achieving her first ace of the match before breaking Zheng straight away. The 24-year-old built up three break points but only ended up needing one.

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Rybakina continues to dominate

Despite cheers of encouragement for Zheng from the home crowd, Rybakina continued playing with a good balance of power and control while her opponent committed a lot of unforced errors. As a result, it wasn't long before Rybakina got two more break points and a chance for a double break.

Although Zheng saved the first one, another unforced error gave Rybakina the double break. At this stage, the World No. 5 had more games on the board than the 20-year-old had points in the match.

However, Zheng fought back to avoid a bagel in the opening set by winning her following service game. This was not enough to deter Rybakina, though, and the 24-year-old held her serve to comfortably sail through the first set.

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Zheng was able to play slightly better in the second set, holding her first service game 40-30. Both players continued to hold for a short while longer before more unforced errors started creeping back into Zheng's game and a double fault gave Rybakina the first break of the second set.

From there, it seemed impossible for Zheng to get back in the match as Rybakina moved up 40-0 in the former's next service game. Although she once again saved the first match point, she then hit the ball into the net which saw her opponent go up a double break.

It wasn't long until Rybakina was serving for the match, which she succeeded in doing with a 40-0 lead, sweeping past Zheng in an hour. She will face Tatjana Maria in the next round of the China Open.

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Cruising into the next round 😎 Elena Rybakina defeats Zheng in straight sets and will face Maria in the next round! #ChinaOpen

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