Making it to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open doesn’t guarantee success at the next tournament. For Botic van de Zandschulp, it didn’t even guarantee a spot in the main draw of the China Open.
The Dutchman arrived in Beijing as one of the hopeful qualifiers, fighting for a place in the field. He earned it Tuesday, beating Chinese wildcard Cui Jie 6-4, 6-4, nabbing one of four main-draw spots in the men’s ATP 250 tournament.
But it wasn’t easy. Van de Zandschulp and Cui battled it out on the Brad Drewett Court with a sea of fans cheering on the Beijing native. Van de Zandschulp closed out the match with his fifth ace in the second set. He will play Francisco Cerundolo in the first round of the main draw.
At the 2026 U.S. Open, van de Zandschulp upset sixth-seed Alex de Minuar in the second round to kick-start his gritty run to a second U.S. Open quarterfinal. He was only stopped in the quarterfinals by Alexander Zverev, the eventual U.S. Open champion.
Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta, France’s Arthur Gea and Slovakia’s Alex Molcan also won qualifying matches on Tuesday to earn main-draw spots.
On the women’s side, No. 2 qualifying seed Harriet Dart advanced to her third straight tournament main draw, following appearances in Cincinnati and the U.S. Open. Approaching her tennis day by day sent the London native through with one of 12 main-draw spots at the WTA 1000 tournament. Now, she’ll see how much further it can take her.
Dart handled business against Ma Yexin 6-3, 6-2 in the second qualifying round, advancing to face Qu Yihan in the first round of the main draw. Dart opened the match strong, hitting two aces in her first service game and immediately breaking Ma’s serve. After that, she never looked back.
“(I) take each day as it comes,” said Dart, who reached the second round of the main draw earlier this month at the U.S. Open. “I don’t really have too many expectations. I mean, I haven’t played a tournament in three and a bit weeks.”
Dart defeated Tiphanie Fiquet 6-2, 6-3 in Monday’s first-round qualifying match but was more pleased with Tuesday’s outing on Court 5.
“It’s just about improving each day,” Dart said. “Today’s match was a little bit better than yesterday, so hopefully I can keep moving in that direction.”
Dart held Ma back from equalizing for the entire first set, with a clutch break on Ma’s serve giving her a 4-2 lead. She only dropped one more game in the set, claiming it 6-3.
A potential turning point came in the first game of the second set, with Ma serving. The game featured several long rallies across five deuces. Dart stayed composed, while Ma double-faulted to hand her the break and the 1-0 lead.
Despite dropping her own service game immediately after, Dart stayed in the driver’s seat for the remainder of the match, winning four games in a row to close out the win.
“Some days are better than others, but it’s just about having the inner confidence in the big moments,” Dart said. “It’s just about managing expectations and navigating it each day.”
Two Chinese players won their qualifying matches and earned their way into the main draw. Bai Zhouxuan overpowered her compatriot Jiayi Wang 6-1, 6-0 in just 51 minutes to advance to the main draw. Bai’s win enters her into the main draw of a WTA 1000 tournament for the first time since the 2024 Madrid Open, when she reached her career-best ranking of No. 83.
Bai showcased total dominance in Tuesday’s match, including a 100 percent win percentage on first serve and winning over twice as many points (54-21) overall as Wang.
China’s Shi Han battled back to beat Elvina Kalieva 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-3 in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
With this win, Shi will enter the main draw of the China Open for the third consecutive year. The tournament will be her most prestigious event of the year, as Shi’s schedule thus far has consisted of various WTA 125 and WTT events.
Two Australians also made it through qualifying. Storm Hunter dominated Russian Ksenia Zaytseva 6-0, 6-1 in the second qualifying match on Tuesday to continue her comeback from a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2024. Hunter never faced a break point. Maddison Inglis joined her compatriot with a straight-set win over Darya Astakhova.
Rounding out the women’s qualifying slate are Robin Montgomery, Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Marina Bassols Ribera, Katarzyna Kawa, Andrea Lazaro Garcia, Mai Hontama, and Elsa Jaquemot.
Main-draw play begins on Wednesday, September 30.
By Isabel Kirkwood, Maya Sabapathy, Pranav Sriraman and Jackson West
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Douyin@ChinaOpen
