On April 27, Beijing time, the first round of the ATP1000 Madrid Masters was contested. China's Zhang Zhizhen competed against Rodionov, who broke through from the qualifiers. After two sets of fierce fighting, Zhang Zhizhen eliminated his opponent 2-0 and successfully won his first career Masters victory.
In the first set, Zhang Zhizhen was broken in the third game, trailing Rodionov 1-2. In the 6th game, Zhang Zhizhen broke the opponent's serve and chased the game to a 3-3 draw. After that, both sides held their own serves, and the game was dragged into tie-breaks. Zhang Zhizhen scored three consecutive points at 5-6 and won the first set 8-6 after clearing the set.
In the first four games of the second set, both sides successfully saved serves, and Zhang Zhizhen took the lead in the fifth game to complete the break to take a 3-2 lead. In the 10th game, Zhang Zhizhen won the game with his serve, and he successfully saved his serve to win the second set 6-4.
In a match that lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes, Zhang Zhizhen defeated world No. 119 Rodionov 7-6 (6)/6-4 to reach the second round of the men's singles. This is Zhang Zhizhen's first victory in the Masters main event, and it is also the first victory of the Chinese men's tennis ATP Tour clay-clay main event since the Open era. Advancing to the competition, Zhang Zhizhen scored 25 points and will face Canada's Shapovalov in the next round.