Australia Open: Wang Qiang keeps hope alive

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Six Chinese women's players have made it to the singles main draw of this year's Australian Open. But with Peng Shuai and Zheng Saisai having already bowed out of the competition on Tuesday, Wang Qiang proved to be the biggest hope for China which has been growing rapidly in women's tennis.

Wang has stormed into the second round of the year's first Grand Slam after seeing off Fiona Ferro of France in straight sets on the second day of the tournament at the Melbourne Park. The 21st seeded Chinese, who is also currently the highest ranked woman player from her country, got better of her rival 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday morning.

Thanks to her easy victory, the 27-year-old tennis star from Tianjin joined fellow compatriot Wang Yafan, who beat Ellen Perez of Australia 6-4, 6-0 to make a winning start to her Australian Open campaign on Monday.

Earlier, Peng Shuai was knocked out of the year's first major after being defeated by Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 6-1. In another opening round match, Zheng Saisai was ousted by 18th seeded Garbine Muguruza 6-3, 6-3.

Wang Yafan of China celebrates after winning match point in her first round match against Ellen Perez of Australia during day one of the 2019 Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, January 14, 2019. /VCG Photo

Another two Chinese women players fought in the opening round on Tuesday as Zhang Shuai took on 2014 Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, while Zhu Lin faced Margarita Gasparyan of Russia.

As far as the ongoing record of the Chinese women players has been concerned and since the likes of Li Na have already retired, Zhang has the best grand slam result among all the active Chinese women's singles players as she reached the quarter-final of the 2016 edition Down Under.

However, Wang enjoyed a year of improvement in 2018 by reaching the third round of both the French and U.S. Open last year. Meanwhile, prior to the tournament, Wang Yafan's best record remained a second-round performance at Flushing Meadows in 2016 as she has eyed to reach her first Grand Slam third round at Melbourne.

On the men's side, China's Li Zhe was the only representative from his country in the main draw. The 32-year-old edged past fellow Chinese Zhang Ze in last month's qualification in Zhuhai City, south China's Guangdong Province. But in his maiden appearance on a Grand Slam, Li went down 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 against German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber in his first-round match.