Photo:CCTV

 
After a grueling battle past midnight in Rome, Italy, China's tennis ace Zheng Qinwen was defeated by fourth seed Coco Gauff of the US 6-7, 6-4, 6-7 in the semifinal of the WTA Italian Open on Friday. 

Having knocked out top seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus for the first-time in her career at the quarterfinals, Zheng failed to serve the match out at 5-3 in the third set and ultimately suffered a narrow defeat to Gauff after a three-set roller coaster that lasted three hours and 32 minutes, regrettably falling short of reaching her first WTA 1000 clay-court final.

Global Times