Wang Xinyu has advanced to the semifinals of the ASB Classic after her quarterfinal match against Britain\u2019s Francesca Jones ended in retirement on Friday.<\/p>\n
The Chinese player and tournament\u2019s seventh seed was leading 6-4 4-3 when Jones was forced to stop due to a leg injury, cutting short what had been a competitive contest under challenging daytime conditions.<\/p>\n
Wang said her biggest satisfaction came from how she managed to adjust as the match unfolded, particularly with the elements playing a major role.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just ability to find a way and adapt to different conditions on court, including the wind and also the sun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my first time playing the first match here. So it\u2019s different conditions than the late night match I played in last match. Francesca, she\u2019s very solid at the baseline, and she has great touches.\u201d<\/p>\n
The quarterfinal was played in bright sunshine and she acknowledged the sun proved the more difficult factor to deal with than the wind, especially on serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say more the sun [was a problem], because the serve is pretty important in my game,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of going for my first serve as usual, on the other side [of the court], I was just trying to put more spin to the ball, to get my first serve percentage higher so we can get into rally, and I\u2019m not too defensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones received medical attention late in the first set before ultimately being unable to continue early in the second. Wang said she was unsure exactly when the injury occurred, as her focus was on managing the conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe called a physio at the end of the first set, but I was busy adjusting to the sun,\u201d she said. \u201cI saw her doing a few squats, but I don\u2019t know exactly, when it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wang expressed sympathy for her opponent and said she hoped Jones would recover in time for the season\u2019s first grand slam.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope she can recover fast for the Australian Open. She\u2019s playing great, so I hope to see her in two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the match, Wang played with aggression, but was also quick to reset after errors, something she identified as an important part of her mindset.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can feel it, if there\u2019s some adjustment you can make to the shots, like when you miss it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise, if you\u2019re not sure, then just move on and don\u2019t think too much about it. Don\u2019t let it get into your head and try to focus for the next point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wang will now look ahead to Saturday\u2019s semifinals as she continues her run at the Auckland tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wang Xinyu has advanced to the semifinals of the ASB Classic after her quarterfinal match against Britain\u2019s Francesca…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-224790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}