Following Wang Qiang's 1-2 defeat to Yu Wan in the first round of qualifying and Zheng Qinwen's 1-2 reversal by Mukhova in the first round of the main round, Zhang Shuai, a sister of China's Jinhua, was also out of the first round of the Madrid Crown. Compared with the previous two players, Zhang Shuai lost even more crisply, she only lasted 1 hour and 8 minutes, and then lost 0-2 to halep, the owner of two Grand Slam singles champions.
With Zhang Shuai out, all three Chinese players in the Madrid Crown singles tournament have been eliminated, and neither the qualifiers nor the main tournament have won a single victory. This rout once again proves that the competitiveness of Chinese players on clay is very weak, and the prospects of China's Golden Flower are not optimistic at the French Open next month.
Let's take a look at Zhang Shuai's match, which is a game that makes people look a little desperate, even if she once led 2-0 in the second set, almost no one dared to predict that she would win the game. The red clay is doomed to the 33-year-old veteran not to bring any surprises to Chinese fans.
In the first set, Zhang Shuai's first serve was broken, the fifth set was broken again, and Halep saved his first three serves to take a 5-1 lead. Zhang Shuai experienced a tie in the seventh set to save serves, but could not make a difference in the opponent's serve to win the game, and finally lost a set 2-6. This plate only takes 29 minutes.
In the second set, Zhang Shuai broke through the belt to make a 2-0 start, and then led 40-0 in the third set. Unfortunately, she lacked the means to win, and then made frequent mistakes, conceding 5 points in a row and being broken, instantly giving up her advantage on the field. After that, Zhang Shuai played a lot of strange balls, including various bizarre mistakes in front of the net, which made it amazing that her doubles were not in vain. After losing four consecutive sets, Zhang Shuai fell behind 2-4.
After saving the serve in the seventh set, Zhang Shuai made a final attempt in the eighth set, and at one point led 40-30 to get the break point. However, Halep's state is not something that Zhang Shuai can suppress now, and this break point ends in squandering, 3-5. Zhang Shuai did not struggle much in his own unavoidable serve, was hastily broken, and finally lost another set 3-6, losing 0-2.
Throughout the game, Zhang Shuai was 52%-78% behind in terms of a shot scoring rate, which was also the main reason for her eventual defeat. In terms of break efficiency, Halep reached a staggering 100%, which also shows how unconfident Zhang Shuai is in the game. In terms of total points, Zhang Shuai fell behind 43-62 and lost as much as 19 points.
After this match, Zhang Shuai's record in Madrid was updated to 1 win and 6 losses, except for Naomi Osaka in the first round of 2018, the other 5 times were all traveled in one round. At the same time, the record of the engagement between her and her nobleman Halep was updated to 2-3.
Of course, China's journey to Madrid is not completely over. In women's doubles, Zhang Shuai will partner with Australian star Sanders to play as the number one seed, eager to get good results. Xu Yipan and Yang Zhaoxuan, who won the Indian Wells Crown last month, are the No. 7 seeds and are also strong contenders for the women's doubles title. Han Xinyun worked with Panova to enter the women's doubles competition with a protective ranking.
——Pay attention to the small fish and feel the temperature of sports!