PARIS, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tennis player Zheng Saisai lost her women's singles opening match at the 2018 French Open to doubles specialist Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-4, 6-1 here on Sunday.
Zheng's compatriot Wang Yafan also bowed out from the clay Grand Slam with a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Croatian Petra Martic.
In their first set, Zheng built a 2-0 lead early in the match, before Makarova, three-time Grand Slam doubles winner, improved her hitting accuracy to take four games in a row.
Both players held their serves in the following four games, and Zheng conceded the first set 6-4 with a forehand error.
A double fault led to a break in Zheng's service, before the left-handed Russian stormed to a 4-0 lead in the second set.
Zheng won the fifth game in her service, the only victory for her in the set. She never came back into the match then, and a poor backhand finally decided her fate of early farewell to the tournament.
Zheng recorded 57 percent in her points on first serve, almost 20 percent lower than that of Makarova. Zheng's nine winners were half of Makarova's 18 in total.
Zheng, who underwent knee surgery after the U.S. Open last year, said that she felt quite nervous due to long-term absence from major tournaments.
"I failed to play at my level, but she played well in the match," commented Zheng, adding that she still felt quite happy to be back at Roland Garros.
Martic led 2-1 in her three previous encounters with Wang. The 80th-ranked Chinese was insufficient to stop her Croatian opponent from moving on by giving away the match 6-2, 6-3.
Speaking about her first main draw appearance in women's singles of the French Open, Wang attached great importance to more concentration.
"Your opponents in the main draw will be stronger, and there is little room to make mistakes, so you need to pay much more attention to it," she said.
"Matches that we played were mainly on hard court, so there is much difference," Wang pointed out. "It was pretty difficult for me to change the line, and I could not play in my rhythm on clay."
Martic will face the winner between China's Wang Qiang and American veteran Venus Williams in a match to be played later on Sunday.
