No.15 seed Paula Badosa survived a stern second-set test from wild card Zhang Shuai in the China Open quarterfinals, coming from 3-1 down to triumph 6-1, 7-6(4) in 1 hour and 23 minutes.
Beijing: Scores | Order of Play | Draws
Badosa advances to her third semifinal in her past five tournaments, and has now won 28 of her last 35 matches dating back to mid-May. At that point, she was ranked No.140, but in the space of just four months she has firmly re-established herself in the Top 20. A title this week could even see the Spaniard return to the Top 10 for the first time since 2022.
Former World No.2 Badosa's run this week marks her fifth semifinal at WTA 1000 level. In 2021, she won the biggest title of her career to date at Indian Wells; she also made the last four at Madrid 2021, Indian Wells 2022 and Cincinnati 2024. She will bid to make a second WTA 1000 final against either No.4 seed Coco Gauff or qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva.
Keys to the match: After a one-sided first set, in which Badosa broke Zhang to love three times, the home player raised her game to go toe-to-toe with the Washington champion through the second set.
A series of fine backhands and drive volleys enabled Zhang to take a 3-1 lead, and despite being pegged back to 3-3 the World No.595 continued to stay on the front foot. Off the ground, Zhang largely outplayed Badosa, tallying 20 winners to her opponent's eight.
Badosa's trump card was her serve. Once rallies got going, Zhang had the advantage -- but a total of 10 aces, and many more unreturned deliveries, enabled Badosa to prevent too many rallies from getting going in the first place.
Towards the end of the second set, Zhang's aggressive tactics became more of a tightrope. The 35-year-old's hitting became more spectacular -- the two rallies that saw her hold for 6-6 had her home crowd on their feet -- but in the tiebreak, she missed two crucial would-be winners by inches. Badosa, who kept her unforced error count to 14 compared to Zhang's 22, proved the more solid player in the home stretch.
In Badosa's words: "She was playing very high level, not the ranking that shows or the dynamic she was going through. Also I knew she was playing with a home crowd, that's always extra motivation.
"I started really strong with my ideas very clear and playing very aggressive. Everything was going my way. Second set, I think she raised her level. She was playing more aggressive and going more to net. At the end it was a battle that could have gone either way."
