Li Na bows out of China Open first round

 　　BEIJING, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- World number five Li Na became the biggest seed casualty in the opening round of the China Open on Sunday, slumping¹ to a 6-4, 6-0 defeat to the unknown Romanian qualifier Monica Niculescu.

　　Li, who broke up with her Danish coach Michael Mortenson after staging a string of disappointing results since being crowned as French Open champion, still cut a sorry figure on home court under the guidance of her husband coach Jiang Shan.

　　Li meant her words in the pre-tournament press conference the previous day, saying that the main draw was never easy although her rivals in the first two rounds are either qualifier or wild card player.

　　The second set proved a torture for the crowd standing² in the cold and Li herself, the first Chinese to win a Grand Slam trophy³. She was horribly out-of-form and her game become ugly with comitting many grave mistakes and looking like she never wanted to win. In the most humiliating way of losing a match, Li dropped the set at love.

　　Samantha Stosur from Australia will benefit a lot through Li's defeat as the newly crowned U.S. Open winner is heading to a possible fourth round clash and now the world number six stays much more comfortable in her zone.

　　In the newly built National Tennis Stadium with a capacity of 15,000 fans, the Romanian qualifier did not have stage fright but the 29-year-old Li looked shaky.

　　The start of the match was unexpectedly a lopsided one, with Li failing to hold her first three serves and trailing 5-1 against her much lower ranked opponent.

　　Li revived some of her brutal⁴ game in the seventh game, saving three set points before holding her first serve of the match, 5-2.

　　To the noisy home audience, Li seemed to go back on track by breaking in the next game and going on to pull with at 5-4.

　　However, Niculescu's confidence seemed unchanged in the tenth game and finally tasted the first drop of blood after Li's forehand return hit into the net, 6-4.

　　Having come into the tournament as a Grand Slam winner for first time, Li has been given much expectations or what she described are more like burdens of becoming the first Chinese to lift trophy on home soil in the eighth year of the tournament.

　　The Chinese trailblazer never found her way out against the 58th ranked rival in the remaining part of the match, which only cost one hour and 21minutes.

1 slumping   

大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的现在分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]

参考例句：

• Hong Kong's slumping economy also caused a rise in bankruptcy applications. 香港经济低迷，破产申请个案随之上升。
• And as with slumping, over-arching can also be a simple postural habit. 就像弯腰驼背，过度挺直也可能只是一种习惯性姿势。

2 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

3 trophy   

n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品

参考例句：

• The cup is a cherished trophy of the company.那只奖杯是该公司很珍惜的奖品。
• He hung the lion's head as a trophy.他把那狮子头挂起来作为狩猎纪念品。

4 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。