Shuai Zhang’s incredible China Open run thwarted by Paula Badosa in quarter-finals

Chinese wild card Shuai Zhang’s magical run at the China Open tournament was vanquished in the quarterfinals by No. 15 seed Paula Badosa of Spain 6-1, 7-6(4) on Thursday.

Badosa, making her main draw debut, appeared indomitable during the first set, breaking Zhang three times and sweeping every point in each. The Spaniard also delivered six aces, a whopping three of which occurred during the sixth game. On the contrary, Zhang looked completely out of form, holding serve only once and frequently giving up points in a deluge of unforced errors. Zhang double faulted twice in the seventh game to grant Badosa an easy first set win after only 23 minutes. This was the first set Zhang dropped all tournament.

Zhang came alive in the second set, breaking Badosa’s serve in the first game and holding her own in the second to take her first lead of the match. Holding her serve in a fourth game and up 3-1, it seemed that Zhang would bring the match to a third set. But Badosa hit back, winning three consecutive games to retake the lead at 4-3. The players then traded games to a tiebreak, in which Badosa emerged victorious to close out an hour-long second set. Throughout the match, Badosa delivered 10 aces and won 77.5% of first serve points.

With the Chinese crowd firmly behind Zhang, Badosa understood that winning would be tricky.

“I knew I had to play my game, not thinking much of who I had [on] the other side of the net,” Badosa said in her post-match press conference. “And it worked pretty well, especially in the second set.”

Badosa has now reached the quarterfinals or better at her last four events, including back-to-back semifinals after the Cincinnati Open in August. She will face No. 4 seed American Coco Gauff in the semifinals. Badosa leads Gauff 2-1 on hard courts and 3-2 overall.

This was Zhang’s third time in the quarterfinals of the China Open, after appearances in 2016 and 2018. She has yet to make it to the semifinals of the tournament.Her win over McCartney Kessler in the first round ended a 24-match singles losing streak that lasted more than 600 days, the second-longest in the open era of the WTA Tour. Zhang then shocked the world by defeating No. 6 seed Emma Navarro in the second round, becoming the lowest-ranked player, at No. 595, to reach the China Open third round. Zhang’s low ranking came after a yearlong hiatus from the sport following a shoulder injury.

Prior to the China Open, Zhang, who is ranked No. 30 in doubles play, had considered focusing on doubles going forward.

“But now I think I have to change the plan,” Zhang said after her loss. She aims to return to the Top 100 in the PIF WTA rankings: “Let’s see how far I can go.”

—Reporting by Jared Rubenstein