During what has already been a historic year for Chinese tennis on the men’s Tour, 26-year-old Zhang Zhizhen set a new record at the Madrid Masters on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old has become the first player from his country to reach the last eight of a Masters 1000 event after ousting Taylor Fritz 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(8). Interestingly Zhang sealed the victory despite hitting fewer winners and aces, as well as having a lower percentage of service points won than his opponent. It is the first time in his career he has defeated a top-10 player.
“I didn’t think about this. Didn’t really think about [his] ranking, because you just need to give the best you can,” atptour.com quoted Zhang as saying afterwards. “Before the match, you know it’s a very tough player. There is no weakness, so [I] just tried what I can do. Then [after] losing the first set, [I was] thinking about trying to play a little bit closer match. In the end [that] I can win, that’s amazing.”
Zhang’s victory comes amid a surge in success for China’s male players on the Tour. At the Australian Open in January Shang Juncheng became the first Chinese man to win a main draw match. The following month Wu Yibing became the first from his country to win an ATP title at the Dallas Open. Wu is also the highest-ranked Chinese player in ATP history after reaching No.55 earlier this year.
The fairytale run in Madrid by Zhang is something that surprises him. He admits that clay isn’t his favourite surface and is also not a great lover for playing events at high altitude which makes the ball travel faster. In theory, Madrid should be the better event for players with a big serve compared to other events on the surface due to its altitude.
“Normally I don’t like altitude because for my baseline (game) the ball is flying so much. I like to play a little bit longer rally.” He explains.
“I was very surprised how I had a result here really.”
The next test for Zhang will be a meeting with a resurgent Aslan Karatsev who has already produced shock wins over Botic van de Zandschulp, Alex de Minaur and former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev in Madrid. It is only the second time this season the Russian has reached the last eight of an ATP event after Maharashtra in January.
“I’ll tell you a secret. We had a practice, I lost 6-0 with Karatsev,” Zhang said. “I’ll do my best. Here everyone is a great player, huge player. They all have some very good results. [I will] try to do the best what I can do.”
Zhang is projected to rise up the ATP Pepperstone rankings to a career-high of No.66 as a result of his run in Madrid so far.
