In the early morning of May 13, Beijing time, the third round of the competition of China's first brother Zhang Zhizhen came out after a long time. Zhang Zhenren did not disappoint the fans who stayed up late to watch the game, and his state continued to burst, getting rid of the label of "three-set tangled man", and finally defeated the No. 12 seed Shelton 6-2, 6-4, and reached the round of 16 of the Rome Masters for the first time in his career! In the 1/8 finals, he will face the qualifier Monteiro, a Brazilian player.
Zhang had a fantastic week at last year's clay tournament at the Madrid Masters, reaching the quarterfinals of the Masters for the first time in his career. After that, Zhang Zhizhen was full of firepower, and the top 32 of the French Open and the US Open were the best results of the men's tennis in Chinese mainland. With Hangzhou's Asian Games victory, Zhang Zhizhen has already secured a ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The ATP singles is ranked 52nd in the world and is strongly promoted to China's No. 1 brother. He and the entire Chinese men's tennis team also ushered in the best era.
In the new season, Zhang Zhizhen continued to break through in various arenas and reached the round of 32 at the Australian Open. The doubles advanced to the semifinals. The ATP Tour won his first men's doubles title in Marseille and is ranked 46th in the world. However, in the clay season, Zhang Zhizhen temporarily pressed the pause button, and the Monte Carlo Masters stopped in the second round, and the ATP Barcelona and Rome Masters stopped in the first round, and a series of defeats caused Zhang Zhizhen to lose a lot, and the world ranking also slipped to 59th.
Zhang Zhizhen was furious, and the Rome Masters left the coaching team and single-handedly went into the tiger's den. Zhang Zhizhen is lucky, from the Rome Masters draw table, it is destined that Zhang Zhizhen will go further. Zhang Zhizhen let go of his mental baggage after losing a huge score in this tournament, defeating Garland 6-2, 7-5 in straight sets in the first round to unlock his first victory at the Rome Masters. In the second round, Zhang smiled at the tournament's No. 19 seed Mannarino, a player who was not good on clay and even suffered a 12-game losing streak on clay, and Zhang smiled and swept 6-1, 6-3.
In the third round, Zhang Zhizhen ushered in a real opponent, the No. 12 seed Sheldon of the United States, a 21-year-old teenager from the United States, and the two met at the Australian Open last year. In the end, Shelton reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, completing the biggest breakthrough of his career. Then the career path was bright. He reached the semifinals of the US Open and won the first championship of the Tokyo 500. In this game, although Zhang Zhizhen's success rate was low, only 53%, Zhang Zhizhen relied on solid defense and a beautiful topspin moon ball, directly stunned Shelton, and it only took 1 hour and 11 minutes to end the battle 6-2, 6-4, and advance to the round of 16 with three consecutive wins.
Looking ahead to the opponent in the fourth round, qualifier Monteiro. Zhang Zhizhen is very sober. Zhang Zhizhen said: I don't know much about the opponent Monteiro in the next round, but I know that he has won in Madrid and here, and he should be in good shape, and he is also very suitable for the environment here, and of course I am also very adaptable to ....... Monteiro has been in good form lately, beating Tsitsipas in Madrid to advance to the round of 32. In this stop, he saved match points and defeated Kecmanovic 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 to advance to the round of 16, and he is also in good form.
However, for Zhang Zhizhen, who has gone crazy, he will definitely not let go of a good opportunity to make history. Djokovic, the boss of Zhang Zhizhen's 1/4 district, was upset last night, so Khachanov, Tabillo, Zhang Zhizhen and Monteiro in the same district have a greater chance of breaking through and even breaking into the semi-finals, it depends on whether Zhang Zhizhen can continue to seize this splashing wealth!