WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- China's Zhu Lin fought hard in full sets but lost to Mona Barthel from Germany in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open held in Indian Wells, California on Thursday.

Zhu, who had to play two more games to qualify for the main draw, pushed her German opponent to the corner by battling for two hours and 27 minutes in the match.

Zhu lost the first set, but clawed back to tie the match by winning a second set tiebreak. However, Barthel was the one who called the shots in the deciding third set.

With the victory, Barthel improved her head-to-head record against Zhu to 2-0.