On May 13, in the third round of the men's singles at the 2024 ATP 1000 Rome Masters, Zhang Zhizhen defeated the tournament's No. 12 seed Shelton 6-2, 6-4. This is the first time Zhang Zhizhen has advanced to the round of 16 of the Rome Masters. With Djokovic's upset loss, the Rome draw was in chaos. Next, Zhang Zhizhen will compete with qualifier Monteiro for the quarterfinals of Rome.
Zhang had a stellar clay season in 2023, reaching the quarterfinals at the Madrid Masters and soaring in the world rankings. After one year, the point advantage is converted into a point retention burden. Zhang Zhizhen first stopped in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters, and then played back-to-back rounds in Barcelona and Madrid, dropping from a high of 47th to 54th in the world rankings. Zhang Zhizhen struggled to turn his mindset around. Before the race in Rome, Zhang Zhizhen said that losing a huge score in Madrid was like a heavy burden.
In Rome, Zhang gained confidence in his victories over Garland and Mannarino. In the third round, he faced the tournament's No. 12 seed, American rising star Shelton, after Zhang Zhizhen had lost to Shelton in five sets at the Australian Open. The two met for the first time on clay, and Zhang Zhizhen struggled to score points from the baseline even though he scored only 37% of his first serve. In the first set, Zhang Zhizhen only lost 3 points in 4 service games and won 6-2. In the second set, Sheldon returned to form, and Zhang Zhizhen still seized the key point opportunity to break serve and maintain the advantage until the end, sealing the victory 6-4. This is the first time in Zhang Zhizhen's career that he has reached the round of 16 in the men's singles at the Rome Masters, and it is also the best record in the history of the Chinese men's tennis at the Rome Masters.
In an interview after the game, Zhang Zhizhen said that he had done research on Shelton to make his tactics targeted. 'I watched Shelton in Madrid and he was so fast, so I had to go back to the bottom line to catch the ball and the crowd couldn't see me on the screen. Zhang Zhizhen said, "In this match, my serve was not so good, but I had a big advantage on the baseline. It felt a little slow on the pitch today, so I took my chance, just a point or two. ”
After defeating two seeded players in a row, Zhang has now picked up 100 points and €88,440 in prize money and has risen back to No. 51 in the world. Zhang Zhizhen defeated Djokovic's Tabilo, causing Rome to "mess up the world". In the audience at the Rome match, some fans shouted "final" and "final" to Zhang Zhizhen, hoping that he could upset and continue to move forward.
To continue to advance, Zhang Zhizhen needs to beat qualifier Monteiro in the next round. Although the opponent is not seeded, he is still strong and in hot form. Zhang Zhizhen said of Monteiro that his opponent was in good shape. 'I know he's won in Madrid and here, so he's in good shape and he's used to the environment.'
On the other hand, Zhang Zhizhen still said that he is looking forward to continuing to break through in Rome. "At the moment, it's very open to look at the lottery table, but everyone has reached this stage and is in very good shape. There's an opportunity for all. My goal is the semi-finals and I'm going to take it one step at a time. Zhang Zhizhen said.
Text/Beiqing Sports Chu Peng