After 603 days without a singles win, one WTA star has managed to secure her first win after 24 straight defeats at the China Open.
The Asian swing has seen a formidable amount of records broken, as well as some impressive wins for Chinese athletes.
Juncheng Shang pulled off an astonishing upset against Olympic bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti at the Chengdu Open.
The 19-year-old’s win made him the first player born in 2005 to win an ATP title, as well as the first Chinese man to win a Tour title on home soil.
Zhizhen Zhang suffered an agonizing defeat to new record-breaker Marin Cilic in the final of the Hangzhou Open. However it’s not all doom and gloom for the 27-year-old with Zhang’s run still boosting him back to within just eight spots of his career-high ranking of 31.
For one WTA star however, she ended an unwanted streak of 24 straight singles defeats after a first round win in Beijing.
Shuai Zhang stems 24-match losing streak with first-round win at the China Open
Two-time doubles Grand Slam champion Shuai Zhang finally managed to break a 603-day streak of 24 consecutive WTA singles defeats.
Between February 2023 and September of this year, China’s Zhang hadn’t won a singles match, with her last victory coming against Madison Brengle.
Zhang lost 16 matches in a row before giving herself six months off to then come back and lose eight more.
In the Open Era, only one player has lost more than 24 straight matches, when Madeleine Pegel lost her first 29 matches over a four-year period between 1968 and 1972.
The former WTA number 22 however managed to defeat America’s McCartney Kessler in two tight tie-breaks in the first round of the China Open.
How did Shuai Zhang react after finally winning her first match
Zhang entered Beijing as a wildcard and is the lowest-ranked player to ever compete in the tournament’s history.
Having taken some time off from the WTA Tour, the 35-year-old used her protected ranking, which allows for eight entries to events.
Zhang told the WTA that she suffered a handful of tremendously difficult first-round opponents: “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.”
Reflecting on today’s win however, she said: “I think that this is the perfect timing. My first win at a WTA tournament was 15 years ago at China Open, and then the next day I beat the number one player [Dinara Safina in 2009].
Zhang’s next opponent however, is the current world number eight and recent US Open semi-finalist Emma Navarro.
While Zhang’s losing streak is finally over, it feels unlikely she’s about to stage a winning one.
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