From winless in 603 days to making history in China

After ending tennis’ longest losing streak for 52 years, China’s Zhang Shuai is making up for lost time.

The 595th-ranked 35-year-old ended a dire run of 24 successive defeats spanning more than 600 days, at her home tournament, the China Open, where she has now made history.

Having overcome 65th-ranked American McCartney Kessler for her first win since January 2023, Zhang pulled off a massive upset by stunning US Open semi-finalist Emma Navarro to reach the third round.

That made her the lowest-ranked player to defeat a top-10 opponent in the tournament’s history, with 23-year-old Navarro ranked eighth in the world.

In the Open era only one women’s player has lost more than Zhang’s 24 straight matches (excluding Billie Jean King Cup), when Madeleine Pegel failed to win any of her first 29 matches in the early days of the tour from 1968 to 1972.

Zhang, the lowest-ranked player to ever compete in the main draw of the China Open – a WTA 1000 event, won 6-4 6-2 in Beijing on Friday and will meet 28th-seeded Russian Anastasia Potapova or Belgium’s Greet Minnen next.

The two-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist had won her most recent match against a top-10 player, beating number 10 Caroline Garcia in Tokyo in 2022.

Zhang’s career has been plagued by injuries and she took a six month-break last year, returning in Dubai in February.