After ending tennis’ longest losing streak in 52 years, China’s Zhang Shuai is making up for lost time.
The 35-year-old, ranked 595th, ended a disastrous streak of 24 successive defeats spanning more than 600 days at her home tournament, the China Open, where she has now entered the history.
After beating 65th-ranked American McCartney Kessler for her first victory since January 2023, Zhang pulled off a huge upset over stunning US Open semi-finalist Emma Navarro to reach the third round.
This makes her the lowest-ranked player to beat a top-10 opponent in the tournament’s history, with Navarro, 23, ranked eighth in the world.
In the Open era, only one player has lost more than Zhang’s 24 consecutive matches (not including the Billie Jean King Cup), when Madeleine Pegel failed to win any of her first 29 matches at the start of the tour, from 1968 to 1972.
Zhang, the lowest-ranked player to ever appear in the main draw of the China Open – a WTA 1000 event, won 6-4 6-2 in Beijing on Friday and will next meet 28th-seeded Russian Anastasia Potapova , or the Belgian Greet Minnen.
The two-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist won her last match against a top 10 player, beating number 10 Caroline Garcia in Tokyo 2022.
Zhang’s career has been marred by injuries and she took a six-month break last year, before returning to Dubai in February.
