Local hero Zhang Ling swiftly dumped out of Hong Kong Tennis Open by ruthless Radwanska

Hong Kong’s interest in the singles event at this week’s Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open lasted barely 70 minutes on Tuesday as the city’s number one player, Zhang Ling, suffered another first round exit at her home tournament, going down 6-1, 6-2 against world number 18 Agnieszka Radwanska at Victoria Park on Tuesday.

The fourth-seeded Pole, making her debut at the Hong Kong event, was in no mood to prolong matters as temperatures soared to 32 degrees Celsius on a baking hot centre court.

Zhang was broken for the first time in the fourth game and was never able to find her way back into a one-sided opening set before eventually going down 6-1 inside 25 minutes.

“I think I was let down a little by my attacking shots today,” Zhang said afterwards. “In the first set I was waiting a little too much and I think I should have been more aggressive on my feet.

In the second and final set, Zhang quickly lost her serve again and 28-year-old Radwanska, who is yet to win a title in 2017, took full advantage of her break points as she sealed an easy win over the home-town hero.

On what was a chastening day for the Hong Kong player she was, at least, able to draw positives from her performance.

“In the second set I tried to change my game plan a little and go to net more, and I think that worked well,” said the 27-year-old. “To be honest, I think if I want to reach a higher level, that’s the part I need to concentrate on and make it my weapon.”

Radwanksa will now meet Australian Sam Stosur in the second round.

Of her upcoming clash with Stosur, the Pole said: “Sam plays a different game [to Zhang] and has a great serve ... I’ve known Sam for many years, although we didn’t play for a while. I think its going to be a really good match.”

WEDNESDAY’S ORDER OF PLAY

Centre court

From 3pm

Shelby Rogers (US) vs [7] Daria Gavrilova (Australia)

Naomi Osaka (Japan) vs [2] Venus Williams (US)

Not before 7pm

Samantha Stosur (Australia) vs [4] Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland)

Eugenie Bouchard (Canada)/ Shelby Rogers (US) vs Julia Glushko (Israel)/Priscilla Hon (Australia)

Court one

From 3pm

Lu Jiajing (China)/Qiang Wang (China) vs [3] Makoto Ninomiya (Japan)/Renata Voracova (Czech Republic)

Not before 4pm

[6] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) vs Jacqueline Cako (US)

[1] Chan Hao-ching (Taiwan)/ Chan Yung-jan (Taiwan) vs Zarina Diyas (Kazakhstan)/Misa Eguchi (Japan)

Jacqueline Cako (US)/Valeria Savinykh (Russia) vs Monique Adamczak (Australia)/Chang Kai-chen (Taiwan)