Caroline Garcia, recent semi-finalist of the US Open, was eliminated on Wednesday as soon as she entered the Pan Pacific Open tournament in Tokyo, beaten in three sets by China's Zhang Shuai 4-6, 7-6 (7/5 ), 7-6 (7/5).
Seeded N.2 in this WTA 500 tournament, the Frenchwoman, 10th in the world, approached this meeting with full confidence after her victory in August in Cincinnati (WTA 1000) then her semi-final at the US Open in September.
But, after winning the first set, she eventually lost to world No. 28 Zhang, despite 27 aces and a match point in the second set.
Zhang sealed his victory in this meeting counting for the second round of the tournament by winning the tie-break of the third set by the same score as that of the second, 7-5.
Caroline Garcia is currently in 5th place in the ATP Race ranking, which takes into account points over the course of the year and not compared to the previous year as the WTA ranking does.
She can therefore still hope to compete in the WTA Finals (End of Year Masters) which brings together the first eight players of the ATP Race and will take place in Fort Worth, Texas (United States), from October 31 to November 7.
The day was also fatal for the No. 1 seed and fourth player in the world, the Spaniard Paula Badosa, dryly beaten 6-3, 6-2 by the Chinese Zheng Qinwen.