MELBOURNE, Australia — Distracted by a time penalty and unable to counter the aggressive approach of No. 97 seed Laura Siegmund, Kenwen Zheng’s second-round loss on Wednesday was a long way from reaching last year’s Australian Open final.
Zheng lost the deciding match at Melbourne Park to Aryna Sabalenka and went on to win Olympic gold in Paris and finish second at the WTA Finals in a breakout season.
But her first tournament of the year ended in a 7-6 (3), 6-3 loss at John Cain Arena to 36-year-old Siegmund, who attacked from the first point and knocked Zheng out of the match.
Siegmund is the third-oldest player to beat a top-five WTA player at the Australian Open in the past 30 years. The only one older: Serena Williams, who did it at 39 in 2021 (defeating No. 2 Simona Halep) and at 37 in 2019 (defeating No. 1 Halep).
Cheng needed to change her shoes at the start of the second set, received a time warning from the chair umpire – she said she could not see the clock clearly – and was concerned about some minor issues that sidelined her against the Australian. It opens.
“I feel like today is probably not my day. There are too many details in the important points. I didn’t make the right choice,” Cheng said.
Among the weak serves that bounced before the net, Cheng said the time warning from the umpire “obviously took me away from the match.”
“This is my fourth year on tour, and it’s never happened to me.”
Both of last year’s women’s finalists were playing at the same time on nearby courts.
Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, continued her run to 16 victories at Melbourne Park by winning her last five matches to defeat No. 54 seed Jessica Pozas Manero 6-3, 7-5.
The score line did not indicate the difficulty of the match, with Bosas Manero making powerful shots on the ball in her Australian Open debut and dictating some points to the world number one. Her serve let her down, and Sabalenka was able to relieve some of the pressure on her serve with five serves.
Seventh seed Jessica Pegula beat Elise Mertens 6-4, 6-2 to reach the third round, along with Belinda Bencic and 17-year-old Mira Andreeva, the No. 14 seed, who beat Moyoka Uchijima 6-4. 3-6, 7-6 (8).
Siegmund has never made it past the third round before in Australia, but she is taking confidence from her big upset. Her only lapse was when her serve was broken in the first set. She recovered to take control in the tiebreak, while Cheng remained very conservative in her tactics until near the end.
“I knew I had to play beyond my best. I had nothing to lose. I just told myself to swing free,” Siegmund said. Cheng “A great player. One of the best players at the moment, but I know I can play well and I wanted to show that for myself.”
Siegmund became the first unseeded German woman to defeat a top-five seed at the Australian Open since 2003, when Marlene Weingartner upset Jennifer Capriati in the opening round.
ESPN Research and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
