Chinese tennis player Zhang Shuai. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese tennis star Zhang Shuai had defeated former world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, in the second round of the 2016 Indian Wells Masters held at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California last Saturday.
The 27-year-old Zhang, the current world no. 65 and fresh from a quarterfinals appearance in this year's Australian Open where she stunned world no. 2 Simona Halep during its first round, needed three hours and 24 minutes to finish off the Danish world no. 22 to advance in the third round of the said tournament also known as the BNP Paribas Open, as reported by Xinhuanet.
Wozniacki actually won the first set in "relatively easy fashion", as mentioned by the report, but Zhang was able to persevere in set 2 that opened with five straight break games. The Tianjin, China native was able to take the set, coming back from 2-4 down to rally to 7-6, winning in her fourth break chance to level the game at two sets apiece for both women.
The third and final set started with Wozniacki seemingly about to dominate the match, holding her own and breaking the second game to take a 2-0 lead. Zhang broke back the third set to make it 2-1, but the 25-year-old Monaco resident broke again to build a 3-1 lead and capture momentum in the deciding set.
The two players held their own in the next two games to make the score 4-2 before Zhang won a crucial break to narrow the gap into 4-3.
Wozniacki went up a game away from victory at 5-4 after the competitors again held their serves in the third set's games eight and nine.
However, the wild card entrant refused to crumble to the pressure as she took the next two games to move up 6-5 over the 2011 Indian Wells winner. Zhang successfully served for the match in the set's 12th game, winning three games in a row, as she sent the Danish bomber packing.
"So excited, so tough match," said Zhang afterward, as per Vavel. "Any time everybody play against her, always tough to win because she's very strong mentally and very good at defense."
"She was a big challenge to me because I was not really aggressive, not really stronger. But I have to be stronger if I want to win," she added.
