Paula Badosa has stunned Jessica Pegula at the China Open with a straight-set round of 16 victory in Beijing.
Badosa stormed past China Open second seed Pegula 6-4, 6-0 in just over one hour to reach the quarter-finals.
Pegula enjoyed a ‘perfect’ round of 64 win in the Chinese capital, where she overcame Diane Parry in her first match since reaching the US Open final.
But after a hard-fought round of 32 victory over Veronika Kudermetova, the American has fallen to Spanish star Badosa.
She had lost all three of her previous meetings with Pegula, including their semi-final clash in Cincinnati in August.
Paula Badosa breaks an 18-year record with China Open win over Jessica Pegula
But the number 15th seed at the China Open came from 3-1 down in the opening set on her way to victory, winning 11 of the last 12 matches.
As per OptaAce, the 26-year-old is now the oldest player to reach the women’s singles quarter-finals in her maiden China Open appearance since Lindsay Davenport and Amelie Mauresmo in 2006.
Can Paula Badosa go on to win the China Open?
It is an eighth WTA 1000-level quarter-final for the Spaniard, who now meets Shuai Zhang for a semi-final place in Beijing.
The latter is on a dream run herself, with world number 595 Zhang knocking out Emma Navarro in the China Open round of 64.
That stunning win over the sixth seed came after her round of 128 win over McCartney Kessler, which ended a 603 day streak without a singles victory.
The 35-year-old picked up two further wins to set up the clash with Badosa, where the former will undoubtedly receive heavy backing from the home support given that she is Chinese.
Badosa will, however, also be on a high after her superb display against Pegula, with the former forcing the world number three into 30 errors in the match.
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