“Queen” Wen reigned ruthlessly with a smooth sail into China Open’s third round, raising expectations for a deep run in her home WTA premier tournament.

Roared on by a capacity crowd at the Diamond Court in Beijing’s National Tennis Center, red-hot favorite Zheng Qinwen started off her campaign at the WTA 1000 tournament with ease as she demolished Russia’s world No 71 Kamilla Rakhimova 6-1, 6-1 in 75 minutes to cruise into the round of 32 at China Open on Saturday.

It was Zheng’s first match played on home soil, since her monumental win in the Olympic final in Paris, at one of the country’s biggest tennis courts, where spectators cheered from the edge of their seats for each of Zheng’s winners on a rainy night.

After falling in the opening round to Elena Rybakina at her tournament debut last year, Zheng’s much improved mental strength, underlined by her resilient gold-winning Olympic campaign in Paris, as well as her recent surging momentum have boded well for a deep run at this year’s China Open, where several top contenders, including world No 1 Iga Swiatek, have withdrawn.

Rakhimova, who lost in the final qualifying round on Tuesday, manged to enter the 96-player singles main draw in Beijing as a lucky replacement of former US Open champion Emma Raducanu, who withdrew due to a foot injury, yet proved vulnerable facing the ferocious attack by Zheng.

“I am really satisfied with my performance today. Hopefully I could keep going as far as I could at this tournament so that you could watch me play more,” Zheng said to the rousing crowd at the Diamond Court after her win on Saturday.

“I feel like I haven’t played in such a comfortable environment for a long time. I really appreciate for an amazing crowd who came to support me today,” said the 21-year-old world No 7.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn