China's Wang Xinyu falls to Russia's Kamilla Rakhimova in first round of Italian Open

Wang Xinyu of China suffered a straight-set defeat against Russia's Kamilla Rakhimova in the women's singles first round at the Italian Open in Rome on Wednesday.

According to the original draw, Wang was scheduled to face former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in the opener. Vondrousova withdrew ahead of the match due to a shoulder injury, however, and her spot was taken by Rakhimova.

Wang and Rakhimova had previously met in January, during the final round of qualifying for the Adelaide International, with Wang claiming victory. But this time around, Rakhimova came out on top, winning 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 32 minutes.

The two players exchanged breaks in the opening stages of the first set, leveling the score at 2-2. Wang then lost her rhythm, however, and ultimately dropped the frame 6-3.

The pair again traded breaks early in the second set to sit at 1-1 before Rakhimova took command, grabbing four consecutive games. Wang briefly halted her opponent's momentum by holding serve in the seventh game to close the gap to 5-2, but Rakhimova served out the match comfortably to prevail 6-2.

She will meet 10th-seeded Emma Navarro of the USA in the second round.

On the men's side, China's Buyunchaokete was knocked out by Luciano Darderi of Italy 7-6(4), 6-3 in the first round.

Both players held serve throughout the opening set of their first-ever meeting, with a 6-6 stalemate sending the frame into a tiebreaker. Buyunchaokete jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the extra session, but his momentum stalled due to a series of errors, and he eventually fell 7-4.

Darderi broke his opponent in the first game of the second set. Buyunchaokete then complained of discomfort in his right shoulder and called a medical timeout after the third game. Trailing 5-3 in the ninth, the China's World No. 73 needed to hold to keep the match alive and forced a deuce twice, but failed to stop Darderi from completing the sweep and advancing to the second round.

The Italian will face fifth-seeded Jack Draper of Britain next.

(With input from Xinhua News Agency)