French Open: China’s Zhang Shuai soars into career best round of 16 at Roland Garros
- World No 39 becomes first Chinese player in fourth round at Roland Garros since Li Na in 2012
- Hard-fought win over French teen Clara Burel sees 31-year-old save 17 of 23 break points over two hours and 12 minutes
China’s Zhang Shuai moved into the round of 16 in the women’s singles at the French Open with victory over Clara Burel, the first time she has gone past the third round at Roland Garros.
The 31-year-old has reached the quarter-finals at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open in the past but never been further than the third round in nine Paris attempts, in her sole previous third round appearance she lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2017.
Zhang became the first Chinese player to go this deep since Li Na in 2012, the year after Li went all the way and became China’s first slam winner.
The record books will show that victory over Burel went the way of the world rankings, with the wildcarded teenager, ranked No 357, losing out against the veteran, ranked No 39, who won in straight sets.
But that did not tell the whole story and the win was hard fought for the Tianjin native.
This meeting was a rematch of Strasbourg in the week before the French Open where Zhang won 6-3, 7-6 but was far from routine.
Zhang saved 17 of 23 break points over the course of two hours and 12 minutes against the former junior world number one. The scoreboard on Court Simonne Mathieu read 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 when it was over.
Zhang had to come back from 0-40 down with the score 5-3 to Burel in the first set before breaking serve to make it 5-5 and going on to win the tiebreak 7-2.
She then led 3-1 in the second set before Burel levelled and the games went with service, 4-4 and then 5-5, until Zhang broke again to seal victory.
That ended the run of the French 19-year-old, who was the youngest player to reach the third round since compatriot Alize Cornet in 2008. Zhang beat Cornet in the second round.
Zhang faces seventh seed and two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova next and having shrugged off the weight of history to get this far, a nation will watch to see what she does next.
Does her emulation of Li end with a first Chinese player in the fourth round since 2012 or will this be a recreation of Li’s historic 2011 run?
