Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Zheng Jie toughed out a tight match, beating Baby E. 76(4) 26 64. It was a really tight match and Baby E had her chances, namely in the first set when she was serving for the set was broken fairly easily by Zheng. After bouncing back in the second, she gave Zheng an early break and though she kept fighting, she couldn't get the break back despite a number of chances to do so. All credit for Zheng for fighting through it because Ana did not go away. She kept the pressure on Zheng and made her hold and serve it out.
But there is a silver lining. Ana looked better than she has in the past few months. Her serve was off at times, which hurt her, but her movement looked good, her shot selection was generally spot on, and she was working her forehand pretty well. But it all came down to execution on key points and AI just couldn't shake the rust. And boy, Zheng was absolutely crushing the ball and painting the lines. Not much AI could do there.
But hey, she should still walk away feeling better about this tournament and her progression. She should also be disappointed because she had this match but just couldn't close it out when she needed to. But I think all in all, this was a positive tourney for her and she should go into Moscow with more confidence than she had going into Beijing.
Ok. I'm tired. And a wee bit drunk. So I'll stop now. I will simply leave you with this:
Tabasco was watching the match from her box. 
Insert "Nando in Ana's box" jokes here.
UPDATED: He was also watching her practice. Cree. Pee.
