Zeynep Sonmez beat Anastasia Zakharova 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of qualifying at the WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan. The match was played on hard court, and the tournament offers $4.1 million in prize money. Sonmez began the tournament as the fourth seed and advanced from the first round in straight sets, api.tennis reports.
Two sets, no turnaround
The match did not go to a third set, with Sonmez winning both sets. The first ended with a three-game margin, and the Turkish player's advantage became more pronounced in the second. Zakharova did not win a set in the match.
According to rank.tennis, Sonmez is ranked 58th with 1022 points. Zakharova is 111th with 704 points. The players are 53 places apart.
This was Sonmez's first win in her recent run of matches. Before Wuhan, she lost to Maddison Inglis in Beijing, 4-6, 4-6, and to Iva Jovic in the second round of the tournament in Guadalajara, 6-7(5), 4-6. Before Wuhan, Zakharova beat Yushan Shao 6-0, 6-2 in Beijing and lost to Belinda Bencic 1-6, 6-7(3). In Seoul, she lost to Jelena Ostapenko 4-6, 1-6.