Ostapenko loses first ten games and retires in Toronto

Latvia's top tennis player Alona Ostapenko had a short and unsuccessful match against China's Zhang Shuai at the Toronto tournament. Ostapenko was given a first-round bye, while her opponent is ranked 62nd in the world and was once as high as No. 22.

At the start of the match, Ostapenko failed to hold her serve and fell behind 0:3. In the fourth game, she saved eight break points, but then made a double fault, and the 37-year-old Zhang closed out the game with a well-placed shot. Ostapenko then lost the next five points, and the first set ended 0:6. The temperature during the match was around 25 degrees Celsius.

Early in the second set, Ostapenko again lost her serve and ended the second game with a double fault. When the score reached 0:3, she received a medical timeout. The fourth game also ended with a double fault, and on the following point Ostapenko hit the net and refused to continue. In total, she lost the first ten games of the match.

The head-to-head record between Ostapenko and Zhang now stands at 2-1. Notably, in April the Latvian-Chinese duo of Ostapenko and Zhang were runners-up at the Stuttgart WTA 500 event in doubles.

This was Ostapenko's first match since July 9, when she won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title. During the nearly month-long break, she was active on Instagram and TikTok, positioning herself as an influencer.

Later this week, Ostapenko is scheduled to play doubles with Taiwan's Su-wei Hsieh in the first round against Maria Sakkari and Donna Vekić.