China's Zhang advances while Zhu falls after first round at Wimbledon
Zhu Mandan
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China's Zhuang Shuai, who ranks No. 50 in the world, has advanced into the second round for the first time at Wimbledon after a straight-set win, 6-4, 6-0, over Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia on Monday. The 30-year-old joins China's Li Fang, Li Na, Zheng Jie, Peng Shuai and Wang Qiang to reach the second round at all four grand slams in their careers.

The Tianjin native took the first set with a forehand winner, and held the momentum in the second while romping to a 4-0 lead, before sealing a break point thanks to a nice backhand.

Garcia didn't put up much resistance and looked dejected for the most part in the second. Zhang won it without reply 6-0 when her opponent fired out of bounds.

"This is my best performance on a grass court, so I'm very happy to win this match because my opponent is very strong, and I'm very satisfied with this result. Now I hope to have a better performance in the next match," Zhang said after her win.

However, another Chinese player, Zhu Lin, was dumped out by third seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. After the Chinese saved three match points, the Czech won the first set when Zhu hit the net, 6-2.

The second went all the way to a tie-breaker in which the former world No. 1 showed off her experience to gain the upper hand, and won 6-2, 7-6 to advance to the second round.

The 28th seed Hsieh Su-wei from Chinese Taipei also advanced to the second round with a win over 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia, 6-2, 6-2.