“Zhang Zhizhen Makes History at Madrid Masters: First Chinese Male Tennis Player to Reach Quarter-Finals”

2023-05-03 10:57:40

Make history once more!Zhang Zhizhen advances to quarter-finals of Madrid Masters

2023-05-03 18:57:40.0 Source: Xinhuanet
Author: Xie Yuzhi

Another turnaround once morest the wind, and another creation of history! In the top 16 men’s singles at the Madrid Open on the 2nd, Zhang Zhizhen reversed the eighth seed Fritz with a total score of 2:1, becoming the first male tennis player from mainland China to advance to the top eight of the Masters in history.

Facing the tenth-ranked Fritz in the world, Zhang Zhizhen reversed the situation with two tie-breaks following losing a set first, winning 3:6, 7:6(5), 7:6(8). The whole game took 2 hours and 28 minutes. This is also his first victory over a top ten player in the world in his personal career.

After the start, Zhang Zhizhen was a little slow, and saved a break point in his first serve game. In the sixth game, Fritz ushered in a chance to break serve. Although Zhang Zhizhen won the first break point once morest his opponent, he still surrendered the serve game on the second break point. Fritz then took the lead all the way to win the first set.

In the second set, Zhang Zhizhen was in danger once more, but he served an Ace ball on the opponent’s break point (the serve scored directly and the opponent did not touch the ball) and kept the serve. In the stalemate until the seventh game, Fritz got two break points once more, and broke serve on the second one, leading by 4:3. The indomitable Zhang Zhizhen then staged a Jedi counterattack. He continued to chase points when he was behind at 0:40 in the eighth game, successfully broke serve to equalize the game, and then dragged the game into the tie-break.

In the tie-break, the opponent once led 3:0, but Zhang Zhizhen stabilized his position, scored 5 points in a row, and overtook 5:3. At 5:5, Fritz returned the ball out of bounds to send out an inventory. Zhang Zhizhen was relentless, fulfilled the inventory and tied the total score to 1:1.

In the first eight games of the final set, the two held their serve tightly. In the ninth game, the two fought fiercely on Fritz’s serve. Zhang Zhizhen repeatedly hit winning points and broke serve on the third break point, leading 5:4. But in the next game he served to win, Zhang Zhizhen fluctuated and lost three goals in a row. Although he saved the first break point, his opponent broke back.

At the end of the game, the two entered the tiebreaker once more. Fritz once led 4:1 and got two match points at 6:4. At this time, Zhang Zhizhen once once more showed his superhuman psychological quality, tying the score following releasing a small ball in front of the net. Both sides then lost a match point each. At 8:8, Fritz challenged Hawkeye and failed to send the match point. Zhang Zhizhen calmly fought with his opponent for several shots, and finally won his second match point of the field and won the game.

Post-match technical statistics show that Zhang Zhizhen made 7 aces and 3 double faults. Although the success rate of the first serve was lower than that of the previous three games, only 56%. Both were slightly inferior to his opponents, but his grasp of key points made him have the last laugh in this contest.

Zhang Zhizhen’s opponent in the quarter-finals will be qualifier Karatsev, who knocked out the second seed Medvedev 7:6(1), 6:4 on the same day. The two met once in their careers in 2022, when Zhang Zhizhen defeated his opponent in three sets.

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