BEIJING: Zhang Shuai said she “felt like Rafa Nadal” after the home player ranked 595th powered into the last 16 to extend her historic China Open run on Sunday.
The 35-year-old wildcard had not won a singles match in more than 600 days when she arrived at the prestigious WTA 1000 event in Beijing last week.
Her run of 24 straight defeats was the longest such barren spell on tour since Madeleine Pegel lost her first 29 matches in 1968-1972.
Shuai, a two-time Grand Slam singles quarter-finalist who has been plagued by injuries, has now won three matches in a row after a 6-2, 6-3 defeat of Belgium’s Greet Minnen.
Shuai, who faced Minnen as the lowest-ranked player to reach the China Open third round in the tournament’s history, faces Poland’s 23rd seed Magdalena Frech next.
“I had a long, long, long time not getting this feeling,” said the former top-25 player Shuai, who has won two Grand Slam doubles titles.
“When I play my best I can win a lot of matches, I know that ... I just want to keep it simple, keep going and keep winning.”
Shuai snapped her losing run on Wednesday when she beat 65th-ranked American McCartney Kessler 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/1).
She then stunned US Open semifinalist Emma Navarro 6-4, 6-2 to reach round three and a meeting with 94th-ranked Minnen.
Shuai was on course for a third win in a row when she took the first set and went up a break in the second, only to relinquish the advantage immediately when the 27-year-old Minnen broke back.
As the match ticked past the hour mark, Shuai emerged from a gripping seventh game to break once more for 4-3, then held for 5-3 to put the next round within reach.
Shuai hails from Tianjin, near to Beijing, and said she felt very much at home on the hard courts of the Chinese capital.
So at home in fact that she compared herself jokingly to the Spanish great Nadal on his favorite surface of the French Open.
“When I am on the court I feel so like Rafa Nadal on Court Philippe-Chatrier,” she laughed
“When you’re losing, maybe everybody wants to play against you ... Now nobody wants to play against you.”
Meanwhile, four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz said Sunday that the steroid case involving Jannik Sinner was “not good” for tennis but sympathized with the world No. 1.
The World Anti-Doping Agency on Saturday said it had appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after Sinner was cleared of wrongdoing last month.
WADA is seeking a ban of up to two years after the Italian twice tested positive for traces of the banned substance clostebol in March.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency subsequently accepted Sinner’s explanation that the drug entered his system when his physiotherapist used a spray containing it to treat a cut, then provided massage and sports therapy to the player.
Alcaraz, the Spanish world No. 3, said at the China Open: “I think for tennis it’s not really good, not really a good sign for tennis in general.”
There has been skepticism among some players about Sinner’s explanation for why he failed the two tests, but Alcaraz took a more sympathetic stance.
“It is difficult for him. I know everyone is talking about it, the news is talking about it,” he said, having reached the last eight in Beijing.
