Romania’s Monica Niculescu recorded the biggest win of her seven appearances at the Shenzhen Open as she steamrolled past the fourth seeded world No.22 Jelena Ostapenko 6-0 6-2 in the first round in just 52 minutes on Centre Court.
The 31-year-old world No.99, who came through qualifying, only lost her serve once at the start of the second set, while converting six of eight break chances against her higher ranked Latvian opponent, who notched eight double faults and won just 26% of her 35 service points.
In the other first-round match on January 1st, Chinese wildcard Peng Shuai was forced to pull out of her thriller against the Czech Republic’s Kristyna Pliskova when she suffered from cramps midway through the third set; the score stood at 3-6 7-6(6) 3-3 after two hours and 26 minutes.