User blog comment:RoznosicielCiast/A "balanced or broken" poll on ALL champions/@comment-25046457-20150218221833/@comment-26111493-20150219232015

Correct. Even the best Ahri players will struggle against most point-and-click champs; the most notable of which (in the current meta) is Lissandra, whose ult is the bane of Ahri's existence. Zed is a different story. I like to think that if the players are of equal skill, Ahri and Zed will go even. Ahri has the most devastating single-target CC in the game, but Zed has blinks instead of dashes, which makes landing skillshots very difficult. So it really comes down to who outplays who in that matchup.

Perhaps the reason you've seen so many Ahris getting "crushed" in lane is that she doesn't reach her maximum mobility/outplay potential until level 6. Until then, poking with her can be frustrating because her damage, as you mentioned, leaves something to be desired until she gets some AP. She can get out traded easily because of this. Also, if a jungler with hard CC catches her with a gank pre-6, it can be very difficult to escape without blowing your flash, especially if the enemy midlaner also has a hard CC to stack upon the first (e.g. Xerath, Syndra, another Ahri, etc.)