WUHAN — China's Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen said on Tuesday she was "feeling the responsibility" as the new face of Chinese tennis and admitted she needed to find a way to handle the pressure.

Zheng shot to superstar status in her home country after reaching the Australian Open final and winning Paris gold this year.

"There are a lot of activities for me, but I enjoy it. Especially I saw there are pictures of me everywhere. I mean, yes, that's insane," said Zheng, who turned 22 on Tuesday.

"People have big expectations of me here. I hope I could stay here longer. But tennis is always tough to predict.

"Of course, there is pressure. I'm also feeling the responsibility as a leader of the new generation, meaning what you are saying is under public scrutiny."

After a first-round bye, fifth seed Zheng was set to play Romania's Jaqueline Cristian in the second round on Wednesday.

After snapping a 24-match losing streak at the China Open last week, Zhang Shuai's change of fortune turned in Wuhan as she lost to Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-4 in the first round.

Meanwhile, world No 4 Coco Gauff said on Tuesday that everyone should accept the roller-coaster nature of tennis, as she responded to criticism of her results this season.

Gauff claimed what she described as an "unexpected" title at the China Open in Beijing last week and is on the cusp of securing her qualification for the season-ending WTA Finals for a third consecutive year.

Despite reaching two Grand Slam semifinals and winning two titles this year, the 20-year-old Gauff has been under scrutiny, especially after her unsuccessful US Open defense last month.

"People don't realize people have great moments in sports and bad moments," Gauff told reporters at the Wuhan Open, where she played Viktoriya Tomova in the second round on Wednesday.

"It doesn't mean anything. I took inspiration from A'ja Wilson," she said, referring to the Las Vegas Aces back-to-back basketball WNBA champion.

"She's kind of like, 'It's hard to stay winning all the time. You need to go through losses to realize what you need to do to evolve'.

"Tennis fans need to be more accepting of that," said Gauff.