Wang puts positive spin on Berlin loss

It was all smiles, and no hard feelings, as China's tennis ace Wang Xinyu drew strength from a "positive" near miss in her bid for a first career title to swing for more surprises at Wimbledon.

No one would've expected a reaction as joyful as Wang's given she had just lost a high-stakes final in such a disheartening fashion — wasting a commanding 6-2 lead in the critical first-set tiebreak to eventually come up short in the hunt for her first singles crown on the WTA Tour.

Yet, there was the grinning world No 33, who laughed away the narrow defeat, clinging only to the positive takeaways.

"I will be thinking about that tiebreak for a few more days, but I am happy with how I played today overall," Wang confessed after losing 7-6 (10), 4-6, 6-2 to 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the WTA 500 Berlin Open final on Sunday.

"Whenever I had a break point, or I was up, she just solved it with an ace. She's been serving unbelievably.

"But, on the other side, I've been feeling better and better on the (grass) court. I feel that I can put all the shots where I want them to be.

"I guess I will take the positives from this week and go from here," said the 23-year-old, who came all the way from the qualifying rounds to reach her first tour-level singles final in the German capital.

Basking more in pride than regret, Wang did enjoy herself during the award ceremony as, in high spirits, she chatted with Vondrousova, smiled back at the clapping crowd and cracked jokes at her team, complaining at them for "sitting in the wrong box" to watch her play on Sunday — all with a relaxing and pleasant vibe.

She, for sure, deserved some celebration as well.

Opening the season with 10 main draw first-round exits out of her total 14 tournaments before Berlin, Wang, somehow, managed to find her feet on grass from two solid qualifying wins.

Riding on the momentum, Wang wielded her attacking tennis and new-found confidence to deliver a string of giant-killing performances, dispatching world No 16 Daria Kasatkina (1st round), newly-crowned French Open champion Coco Gauff (2nd round) and No 19 Liudmila Samsonova (semifinal) on her way to reach her first tour-level singles championship match after six previous attempts failed at the semifinals stage.