Reuters
China’s Zhang Shuai celebrates after winning her fourth round match against Madison Keys of the U.S. at the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park, Australia, January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Reuters
China’s Zhang Shuai celebrates after winning her fourth round match against Madison Keys of the U.S. at the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park, Australia, January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – China’s Zhang Shuai became the first women’s qualifier since 1990 to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals after beating a hobbling Madison Keys 3-6 6-3 6-3 on Monday.
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The 15th-seeded Keys had comfortably won the opening set but was broken by the Chinese in the third game of the second and immediately took a medical time out for treatment to what appeared to be a left leg injury.
American Keys then found it difficult to move around the court and the 27-year-old Zhang used that to her advantage to make the American chase the ball and send it to a decider.
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Keys, a semi-finalist last year, looked on the verge of retiring several times in the deciding set but battled on grimly despite being in obvious pain.
The 133rd-ranked Zhang struggled to control her nerves in the decider, but eventually held it together to set up a quarter-final against unseeded Briton Johanna Konta.
The last qualifier to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals was Mexico’s Angelica Gavaldon in 1990.
“I was very lucky today,” a smiling Zhang said in an on-court interview.
(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Martyn Herman)
