Zheng Qinwen made a winning debut at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, defeating lucky loser Alycia Parks 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour and 41 minutes to set up a second-round meeting with No.1 seed Iga Swiatek.

The result avenged a 6-3, 7-6(4) loss to Parks in their only previous meeting, in the first round of Berlin last year -- Zheng's first ever pro match on grass. On the indoor clay of Stuttgart, the Chinese 20-year-old proved more consistent.

After the Court 1 contest, Zheng declared her wish to play "in the big stadium" for her next match. When told that her clash with Swiatek would almost certainly get that billing, Zheng replied:

"That's perfect. I like challenges."

Zheng and Swiatek squared off twice last year, in the fourth round of Roland Garros and second round of San Diego, with the Pole winning both matches in three sets.

Parks enjoyed her own breakthrough indoors, putting together a 15-match winning streak on indoor hard courts that culminated in her first Hologic WTA Tour title in Lyon two months ago. But the American had already fallen in qualifying this week to Tamara Korpatsch, and has now won just one of eight main draw matches since Lyon.

Head to Head

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More Head to Head
85.7% Win 6
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14.3% Win 1
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Service stats: A match between two of the biggest servers on tour was always going to hinge around the quality of their deliveries and ability to take their chances. Neither player were at their best in terms of first serve -- Zheng landed 50% and Parks only 46% -- but Zheng was more solid behind her second, winning 53% of those points to Parks' 44%.

Parks managed to tally eight aces to Zheng's four, but this was outweighed by 11 double faults. These frequently came in bunches, and at ill-timed moments. Both sets were decided by only one break of serve; in both of those games, Parks coughed up a pair of double faults. Zheng faced only one break point, in the sixth game of the first set, which she saved with an unreturned serve.

Zheng on the Parks challenge: "She's little bit tough to beat because she has a really huge serve. I mean, that's difficult for return. I think she have the most fast serve in the tour for the moment.

"Is always more difficult to play against these kind of player because you know once you lose your serve, can be really dangerous. Of course, I need to be really concentrate in her service game because when we have the opportunity, I have to take. 

"There's a couple times in the first set I got a 0-30 opportunity, but I didn't take it, and I couldn't make the break. Once I make the break, I think that's the difference in this match."

Zheng on her head-to-head with Swiatek: "First time when I meet her, she was No.1 in the world, I was coming from nowhere. First time for me to play in that atmosphere. I think now I get little bit more experience.

"I wish in the next match I can have good performance. I want to show my best tennis. You know, in tennis you never know what's going to happen. That's the beauty things of tennis."