Reality check as China players all out

Strength in numbers? Not always so.

That's perhaps the main takeaway for Chinese tennis at this year's Australian Open with no one left standing after just the second round in Melbourne, where the country had celebrated a record total of 11 entries, including three men, in the singles main draws.

Following three more losses in the women's draw on Thursday, Team China has hastily capped off its AO singles campaign much sooner, and with poorer results, than expected with the gap in experience and consistency between its best and the world's elite further exposed Down Under.

China's world No 108 Wang Xiyu could have advanced as a lone survivor, but a series of error-laden plays, apparently due to high-stakes pressure, saw her squander a 4-2 lead in the deciding set in her second-round clash on Thursday against 8th seed Emma Navarro, who eventually ousted the challenger 6-3, 3-6,6-4 to send the last Chinese player packing.

The result, considering the huge ranking gap between Wang and the world No 8, wasn't quite unexpected.

Yet it was the familiar mental meltdown, which has cost Wang dearly in many previous losses where she'd held the lead, that left fans and herself fuming at another chance wasted, knowing she has what it takes technically and physically to pull it off.