Asia's highest-ranked women's singles tennis player Zhang Shuai of China was forced to pull out on Tuesday in the first round of the ongoing WTA 2016 Tianjin Open citing injury as the reason for her withdrawal from the $426,750 tournament.

According to SuperSport, the 27-year-old Zhang, who currently ranks No. 27 in the latest WTA world ranking results, retired from her opening game against fellow Chinese tennis ace Peng Shuai before the match started. With the withdrawal, the unseeded Peng will advance to the second round of the competition and will be facing Kai-Chen Chang of Chinese Taipei.

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"I have some pain in the waist and knee," the Tianjin-born 2016 Australian Open quarterfinalist said during a press conference. "It's the second time I've had to pull out of the Tianjin Open because of injury in three years, which is very disappointing."

Meanwhile, the 2016 Rio Olympic Games gold medalist  Monica Puig of Puerto Rico passed through the opening round of the competition after defeating the Kurumi Nara of Japan with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) win at the Tianjin International Tennis Center, also on Tuesday.

The  23-year-old Puerto Rican, currently the world's No. 33 and the event's fifth seeded player, has struggled with consistency since her remarkable run in Rio de Janeiro last August. Puig suffered early round loses in the opening round of the 2016 US Open and in her last two tournaments in China, TSN reported.

The opening round of the event saw four other seeded players being eliminated from the tourney. Third seed  Elena Vesnina of Russia surrendered to American qualifier Shelby Rogers with a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (4) defeat and fourth seed Timea Babos of Hungary lost to Alison Riske of the United States 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Rogers will face the Montenegrin Danka Konivic, while Riske will play Magda Linette of Poland in the second round.

TagsZhang Shuai, Peng Shuai, 2016 tianjin open, wta rankings, wta, monica puig