Tennis current world No. 4 Simona Halep of Romania was the biggest casualty in Wednesday's 2016 Shenzhen Gemdale Open second round action, surrendering in three hard-fought sets to the 52nd-ranked Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.

According to beIN Sports, the two-time WTA Most Popular Player of the Year succumbed to a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 defeat to the 20-year-old Czech tennis ace. The loss took a hit on Halep's preparations for the upcoming Australian Open this month that will commence on Jan. 16 and will conclude on Jan. 29.

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"I think she played really well, she's a strong player. I'd never played against her before, she hits the ball hard, served good, so she deserved to win today," the 25-year-old Halep said after the match.

Halep, who was the 2015 champion of the said WTA International Tournament, entered the match with a three-set triumph over former Serbian world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic in the opening round.

However, the event's second-top seeded player came undone and failed to extend her tournament campaign with the lost against Siniakova, who registered the first top-10 victory of her professional playing career.

According to the official website of the WTA, Siniakova's only previous top 20 win came against the German Andrea Petkovic in 2015.

"I'm really happy that I won for me, because it was a very tough match," Siniakova, who will be facing Nina Stajanovicof Serbia in the next level of the competition, said. "When I walked onto court I was feeling that I could win and I just wanted to show my best."

"I was feeling a little bit of pressure in the final set and I'm so happy that I manged to come through and win the match."

The right-handed Siniakova has already won three doubles titles on the WTA tour, as well as seven singles and four doubles titles on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) circuit in her career.

TagsSimona Halep, Katerina Siniakova, Shenzhen Open, wta, ITF