The full text is 1486 words, and the reading time is expected to be 3 minutes.
In the first round of the Australian Open women's singles on January 18, Tianjin Tennis Jin Hua Zhang Shuai defeated Switzerland's Grubich 2-0 and made six of his last seven appearances at the Australian Open to break through the first round. For Zhang Shuai's outstanding performance in this game, the australian open official media commented: "Zhang Shuai is shooting back and forth today, and the feel is like the summer in Melbourne!" ”
In the first round of the Australian Open, Zhang Shuai's opponent was Swiss player Grubic, both of whom were right-handed, and Zhang Shuai was three years older than his opponent. In the previous three encounters with Grubich, Zhang Shuai was slightly inferior with one win and two losses, but the two won one in the first round of the two Grand Slam matches in 2017 Wimbledon and the 2019 US Open. Zhang Shuai, who met for the first time this year in the first round of the Australian Open and is now ranked 74th in the world, aims to avoid another round trip to the Australian Open after last year, while Grubich, who is ranked 34 places higher than Zhang Shuai in the world, hopes to break the embarrassment of the previous five australian opens but unable to pass the first round.
In the first set, Zhang Shuai quickly entered the state of the game, whether it was running to hit the ball or choosing the timing of the Internet, it was obviously better than the opponent GruBich. After completing a key break in the fourth set, Zhang Shuai missed three sets in the 8th set, but with his 9th set easily winning the set, Zhang Shuai took the lead 6-3.
In the second set, Zhang Shuai still maintained a good competitive state, although she lost the serve in the 4th set, she also broke Grubich's serve twice, and thus took the initiative. With the 10th set of the serve to win, Zhang Shuai won another set 6-4, thus taking 77 minutes to eliminate GruBich in two straight sets. In this game, Zhang Shuai blasted out 25 winning points, and a number of technical statistics were obviously better than the opponent, and the victory was reasonable. After two years of breaking into the first round of the Australian Open again, Zhang Shuai also defeated himself! In the next round of competition, Zhang Shuai will challenge the 12th seed of the tournament, Kazakhstan's Lebakina.
Today I played more ideally, and I feel that this is due to the accumulation of efforts in the past many months, or even many years, and I feel that I still have to work hard. For me, I don't want to stop moving forward, I want to keep learning.
—— Tianjin tennis player Zhang Shuai
Looking back at Zhang Shuai's Australian Open performance in the past few seasons, the most eye-catching is 2016. That year, she was a dark horse in the competition, winning consecutive victories over famous players including Halep, reaching the women's singles quarterfinals in one fell swoop, and finally losing to Conta in the quarterfinals and missing the semifinals. Since then, Zhang Shuai has maintained the record of winning at least one game per season at the Australian Open (retired due to injury in 2021). Today, she has advanced to a 2-0 victory over Grubic, extending that record to 30.
Speaking about his next opponent, Laibakina, Zhang Shuai said: "I just have to do my best. "And before that, she's going to have to focus all her attention on tomorrow's doubles match. At this year's Australian Open, Zhang Shuai and the nearly 38-year-old Australian veteran Stosur continue to partner as the 4th seed of the tournament, and they will face the multinational duo of Kato Weiwei (Japan) / Santa Maria (USA) in the first round. After winning the Australian Open women's doubles title in 2019 and the US Open women's doubles title in 2021, the old pair of Zhang Shuai and Stosur will once again attack the Australian Open women's doubles first place this year.
Despite participating in the competition outside and the schedule is tense, Zhang Shuai is still worried about Tianjin, which has suddenly been hit by the epidemic. "Thinking about Tianjin in the epidemic, I feel that as a tennis player in Tianjin, I must show all my fighting spirit on the court. Each of us is making our contribution to defeating the epidemic, and we hope that everyone can comply with the requirements of epidemic prevention and then finally defeat the epidemic. ”
In another Australian Open women's singles match on the 18th, 20-year-old Wang Xinyu defeated American player Ann Lee by a score of 2-0. plum. In this way, the five Chinese mainland players who played in the Australian Open women's singles, Wang Qiang, Zhang Shuai, Zheng Qinwen, Wang Xinyu and Wang Xiyu, all passed the first round, of which the three "post-00s" players Wang Xinyu, Wang Xiyu and Zheng Qinwen won the first Grand Slam victory of their careers. The last time five Chinese players reached the second round of a Grand Slam at the same time dates back to the 2016 US Open, when the five players who advanced to the second round were Zhang Shuai, Wang Qiang, Zheng Saisai, Duan Yingying and Wang Yafan. In the second round of the Australian Open women's singles, under the leadership of Wang Qiang and Zhang Shuai, two experienced players, I wish that China's five golden flowers can continue to work hard and create good results!