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BERLIN: Newly crowned French Open champion Coco Gauff was stunned on her return to action Thursday, losing to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu 6-3, 6-3 at the Berlin Open.

The second-ranked Gauff, who won at Roland-Garros less than two weeks ago for her second Grand Slam title, amassed 25 unforced errors and seven double faults in her loss to Wang.

Gauff had a bye to the second round at the grass-court tournament, a warmup for Wimbledon.

“It was a tough one today but happy to be back on court,” Gauff wrote on her social media accounts. “Tried my best to adjust with the quick turnaround but it wasn’t enough. As always, I’m learning as I go so I hope to do better next time.”

The 21-year-old Gauff added that she is “excited to get some more practices in to be ready for Wimbledon,” which starts June 30. She has not made it past the fourth round at the All England Club.

Wang, ranked No. 49, said she would have been pleased just with the first set Thursday, considering the level of her opponent.

“After I won the first set, I just told myself ‘OK let’s take a minute and enjoy this, I’m playing the French Open champion, and I won the first set,’” she said in her on-court interview.

“No matter how the second and third go, I was like, ‘OK let’s just enjoy it for a second,’” said Wang, who will face Paula Badosa in the quarterfinals. “I’m really happy with how I played today. I was serving good and putting a lot of pressure on the return, especially second-serve return.”

Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka finished off Rebeka Masarova 6-2, 7-6 (6) in a match that was suspended Wednesday after one set because of a slippery court.

Sabalenka had lost to Gauff at the French Open final and later apologized to the American for making “unprofessional” comments after the Paris title match.

Sabalenka will meet 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals.

MANCHESTER: Manchester City have been fined more than one million pounds by the Premier League for breaching the rules around delayed kickoffs and restarts nine times last season, England’s top-flight league said on Thursday.

The fine comes a year after City paid 2 million pounds ($2.56 million) to the league for breaching the same game-delay rules.

The club accepted and apologized for the rule breaches, and confirmed they have reminded their players and staff of their responsibilities in complying with the rules.

“Rules relating to kick-offs and re-starts help ensure the organization of the competition is set at the highest possible professional standard and provides certainty to fans and participating clubs,” the league said in a statement.

“It also ensures the broadcast of every Premier League match is kept to schedule.”

Fines totalling 1.08 million pounds were imposed relating to City’s home games against Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, West Ham United and Newcastle United and their away fixtures against Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Ipswich Town.

The longest game delays were two minutes 22 seconds each for restarts v West Ham and Ipswich.

City are awaiting the verdict of 115 unrelated charges of alleged breaches of the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

The charges cover a period starting from 2009 and continuing into the 2022-23 season. City have always denied any wrongdoing.