It was third time lucky for the unseeded Chinese player, Qiang Wang today when she defeated the ninth seed, Venus Williams, 6-4 7-5 on Court Suzanne Lenglen during their first round match at this year’s French Open in Paris.

Williams, who got the better of her Chinese opponent during their previous two meetings last year, found herself on the back foot during most of today’s match. Despite a drastic improvement in her service games during the second set, it was a little too late as Wang held her composure to advance to the second round where she will meet Petra Martic of Croatia, who defeated another Chinese player, Yafan Wang 6-2 6-3.

Despite a brave fight to qualify and an even braver first round match, the 2010 champion, Francesca Schiavone of Italy lost to Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia, 6-7(2) 6-7(2).

The British favourite, Johanna Konta (22) also failed to get going when she lost her first round match, 4-6 3-6 to Yulia Putintseva of Russia.