Muguruza exits on the day of upsets

Worldnumber one Garbine Muguruza fell at the first hurdle at the China Openyesterday, with the Spaniard forced to retire due to illness during herfirst-round match against Czech Barbora Strycova.The Wimbledonchampion looked sluggish throughout and was broken in the first gamebefore losing the first set 6-1. She was trailing 2-0 in the second whenshe decided she could not continue.“I got a virus in Wuhan and Idid not practice in Beijing. I thought an extra day’s rest would help,and didn’t want to pull out,” Muguruza said. “But I couldn’t performtoday.”American qualifier Christina McHale served up another shockwhen she beat Sloane Stephens 6-3 6-0 to send the US Open championcrashing out in the first round of a tournament for the second week in arow.Stephens, who is seeded 15th in Beijing, was eliminated in thefirst round of last week’s Wuhan Open by China’s Wang Qiang and was leftlamenting another poor performance.“Just a tough day,” she said.“There’s not really much to say about it. Just forget about it and moveon, try to have a better level for the next tournament.”France’sAlize Cornet eliminated former world number one Angelique Kerber 6-4 6-4in the second round in an evenly contested battle that ended theGerman’s hopes of a first title since she won the US Open in 2016.Kerber, the number 10 seed, battled hard from the baseline but was undone by Cornet’s deft touches at the net.Fifth-seedCaroline Wozniacki of Denmark bucked the trend of upsets with a 6-2 6-2win over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Romanian and world numbertwo Simona Halep’s match against Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova was movedto Wednesday after rain delayed play.Unseeded Belgian Elise Mertenspulled off a stunning comeback against Slovak eighth seed DominikaCibulkova, winning 7-6(4) 6-1 despite trailing 5-0 in the first set, andfaces Wuhan Open winner Caroline Garcia of France in round two.PengShuai also had to dig deep to get past American Shelby Rogers, but theChinese edged out her opponent 7-6(3) 3-6 7-5 in an epic match lastingtwo hours and 48 minutes.American Coco Vandeweghe progressedserenely into the second round with a 6-2 6-2 win over Croatia’s DonnaVekic, as did Russian Elena Vesnina whose Polish opponent, MagdaLinette, retired after losing the first set 6-0.RESULTSWomen2nd roundCaroline Wozniacki (DEN) bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 6-2, 6-2Alize Cornet (FRA) bt Angelique Kerber (GER x10) 6-4, 6-41st roundBarbora Strycova (CZE) bt Garbine Muguruza (ESP x1) 6-1, 2-0 retiredCoco Vandeweghe (USA x14) bt Donna Vekic (CRO) 6-2, 6-2Elena Vesnina (RUS) bt Magda Linette (POL) 6-0, 0-0 retiredPeng Shuai (CHN) bt Shelby Rogers (USA) 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-5Christina McHale (USA) bt Sloane Stephens (USA x15) 6-3, 6-0Varvara Lepchenko (USA) bt Lesya Tsurenko (UKR) 5-7, 6-4, 6-2Elise Mertens (BEL) bt Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x8) 7-6 (7/4), 6-1