China's Peng ousts V. Williams at China Open

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China's Peng Shuai celebretes after defeating 6th seed Venus Williams of the United States 7-5, 6-1 in the first round of the China Open in Beijing, Oct. 3, 2016. [Xinhua]

China's Peng Shuai celebretes after defeating 6th seed Venus Williams of the United States 7-5, 6-1 in the first round of the China Open in Beijing, Oct. 3, 2016. [Xinhua]

The first major upset of the tournament was produced on Monday by Chinese wild card Peng Shuai, who defeated 6th seed Venus Williams of the United States 7-5, 6-1 in the first round of the China Open.

Peng proved a tenacious opponent for the elder Williams sister from the outset of the match, and needed just one hour 26 minutes to send Venus packing.

The first set was hotly contested but Peng showed her battling qualities at big moments, breaking her opponent twice to take the opening set.

To a noisy home crowd at the Diamond Court, Peng stormed to 5-0 in the second set and never looked back.

The win sent the home crowd wild, with Peng tossing a tennis ball well into the upper reaches of the stands, much to the delight of fans.

"Actually, at the beginning of the match when I was nervous because she's like a big player, big server, a really powerful opponent for me," Peng said.

After Peng began to find her footing and took the first set, she found the motivation to power through her opponent's serves.

Peng was also circumspect after the surprise win. She said there were still places where she thought her game was not where it needed to be.

Peng said she is not thinking about recent setbacks and declines in her performance and ranking. She said she is motivated simply by the chance to play more tennis.

Earlier in the day, Gabrine Muguruza's title defense effort was spurred as the Spaniard took down Kazakhstan's Yulia Putinseva 6-2, 7-6(5) in the second round.

Muguruza said that she could feel her opponent getting stronger as the match wore on, and added that she is glad to have sealed the deal with the tiebreaker.

"I'm very happy I could close the match in the tiebreak because obviously it was getting tougher and tougher. I think she was getting into the match a little bit more," she said.

She added that while Putinseva fought her hard on every point, she tried to stay focused on herself and remain in control.

To end the day, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland powered past Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-3, 6-4 to also move into the third round.

Radwanksa dominated the match early on, going 4-0 roughly halfway through the first set, and only slipping slightly thereafter to take it 6-3.

Radwanska continued her solid play into the second set, winning 71 percent of her points on the first serve and committing only seven unforced errors.

There were also second round wins for 8th seed Madison Keys of the United States and Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan.

And the first round actions winners include top seed Angelique Kerber of Germany, last year's runner-up Timea Bacsinszky from Switzerland and fifth seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

The main draw actions of the men's part also kicked off on Monday with fifth seed David Ferrer of Spain beating Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-4, 7-6(3) to advance into the second round.

His compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut also made it to the next round after battling three sets to overcome Australian wild card John Millman.

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