MELBOURNE, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Rising Chinese women's player Wei Sijia's much-anticipated Grand Slam debut ended with a straight-sets defeat to fourth seed Jasmine Paolini on Tuesday at the Australian Open.
Paolini handed the 21-year-old Wei a lesson with a comfortable 6-0, 6-4 victory in 73 minutes on Margaret Court Arena.
Wei battled hard, but she was outclassed and pushed around the court by the Italian. The headlights of the big stage proved too bright for 117th ranked Wei, whose debut was marred by 29 unforced errors but did settle as the match wore on.
"I feel very happy. It is not easy to play in the first round," Paolini said. "She played unbelievably and was returning so fast. I had never played her before, but she played really good tennis."
Paolini is a leading title contender after rocketing up the rankings during a terrific 2024 season marked by reaching the finals at the French Open and Wimbledon.
The diminutive 29-year-old is striving to end a modest record in Melbourne, where she had only progressed out of the first round once from five previous appearances.
It was a tough task for Wei, but she arrived confident having impressively won three qualifying matches to progress to the main draw.
Wei had never played a top 10 player before, and it showed with her serve immediately broken.
The writing was on the wall, but she did have a break point in the fourth game only for Paolini to respond with an ace. She then put on a clinic to wrap up the opening set in 30 minutes.
But Wei started the second set far more aggressively and a weight was lifted when she finally got on the board after clinching the first game with a forehand winner.
An increasingly confident Wei had two break points, but failed to convert as Paolini held serve after a marathon second game. Paolini then made her move in the fifth game with a crunching forehand winner to break serve.
After being unable to secure match point in the ninth game, Paolini sealed the result on serve shortly after, and she will next play Taylor Townsend or Renata Zarazua. ■