It was a perfect time for Zhang Shuai to break her unwanted record of 24 consecutive lost matches, in front of a home crowd at the WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing on opening day, Wednesday.
On match point? Oh my god, what are you doing Shuai? When I’m sitting, there I told myself, if I’m still thinking of this point, I will lose the whole match, so I told myself my doubles partner did it!
The former World No 22 battled past American McCartney Kessler, 7-6(5) 7-6(1), to edge her first win since 2023 in Lyon, ending a 603-day drought.
Only one player has lost more matches in a row in the Open Era, excluding Billie Jean King Cup, and that was Madeleine Pegel, who dropped her first 29 matches from 1968 to 1972, in the early days of the WTA Tour.
“I think that this is the perfect timing,” Zhang told WTA Insider after the win. “My first win at a WTA tournament was 15 years ago at China Open, and then, the next day, I beat the No 1 player [Dinara Safina in 2009]. Maybe God has a plan.”
35-year old Zhang is one of a tournament-record 15 Chinese players in the main draw, but she entered Beijing on a wild-card as the lowest-ranked to ever compete in the tournament’s history, at No 595.
Last year, after feeling mentally and physically empty, she shut down her season after Montreal, and took a 6-month break.
“The Asian style, when we do something not perfect, the teacher or family scolds you,” she said. “We think we did something wrong, but not true. Not bad. Nobody can be 100 percent perfect.”
She returned to the tour this year in Dubai, with just 8 protected ranking entries at her disposal.
“I played a lot of great players: Pliskova, Shnaider, Kudermetova, Kasatkina,” Zhang said. “It was like before when I lost the first round at the Grand Slams all the time.
“So I thought I have to challenge myself, but I am not young anymore. So I don’t have so many chances. I don’t have that many tournaments. I need a little bit better draw. I need at least one more win in my life.”
Facing down Kessler, the World No 65, Zhang came from a break down in the opener to break when the American was serving for the set, and then closed it out in the tight tiebreak on her 3rd set point.
Zhang came within a point of closing out the win when she served at 5-4 in the second, but plunked a put-away volley onto the net-cord, which landed back on her side, and Kessler went on to break to extend the match.
“I should have played a backhand volley, not a swing volley,” Zhang said. “I play so much doubles, I can win this point easy. I built the point so good, so well.
“On match point? Oh my god, what are you doing Shuai?
“When I’m sitting, there I told myself, if I’m still thinking of this point, I will lose the whole match,” she added. “So I told myself my doubles partner did it!
“When my partner plays a bad point, I don’t care. I say it’s OK, nobody can be perfect. But sometimes you can be angry with yourself.”
Serving to force another tiebreak, Zhang came through a deuce game to hold, and then raced away with the breaker to secure her momentous victory on home soil.
Zhang will face No 6 seed Emma Navarro in the 2nd-round.
Earlier, playing Beijing for the first time since she captured the title here in 2019, former World No 1 Naomi Osaka kicked off her Asian swing with a 6-3 6-2 win over Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti, ranked 77.
“I’m glad that I’m able to be able to play on this court again,” Osaka said on court. “And I hope to be able to lift a trophy again sometime soon.”
