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The main draw begins in this extended WTA 1000, with Naomi Osaka taking centre stage after having squeaked into the main draw on her own ranking.
That, of course, wouldn’t have happened in the former 56-player draws. But she’ll take it. And she looked good.
And then came the big question: can Zhang Shuai, given a wild card despite her 24-match losing streak that goes back to Feb. 2023 in Lyon, break the duck?
SHE DID!!!!
Zhang’s career high in singles of No. 22 came right at that moment. And she hasn’t won a match since. It’s actually bonkers. Zhang took a break from Montreal a year ago through to Dubai in February. And it didn’t help.
The fact that she still has a ranking of No. 595 based on the one-pointers she gets from losing matches is also a crazy fact.
(Beijing is 12 hours ahead of EDT)
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China Open
Location: Beijing, China
Category: WTA 1000 (Joint event with the ATP Tour)
Surface: Hard Court
Dates: Sept. 25 – Oct. 6, 2024
Prize money: $8,127,389
Draws: S96 – D32
Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024
Final results
Singles, first round
Elina Avanesyan (ARM) def. [LL] Emina Bektas (USA) 62 75
[Q] Hailey Baptiste (USA) def Varvara Gracheva (FRA) 60 63
Clara Burel (FRA) def. Caroline Dolehide (USA) [LL] Tamara Korpatsch (GER) 63 57 63
Sofia Kenin (USA) def Ana Bogdan (ROU) 75 62
Greet Minnen (BEL) def Erika Andreeva (RUS) 75 62
Naomi Osaka (JPN) def Lucia Bronzetti (ITA) 63 62
[Q] Alycia Parks (USA) def. [PR] Wang Qiang (CHN) 16 64 62
Diane Parry (FRA) def. [Q] En-Shuo Liang (TPE) 46 60 60
[Q] Rebecca Sramkova (SVK) def Anhelina Kalinina (UKR) 64 60
Peyton Stearns (USA) def Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (ESP) 62 64
Taylor Townsend (USA) def. Martina Trevisan (ITA) 62 46 63
Viktoriya Tomova (BUL) def Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) 63 63
[Q] Yuliia Starodubtseva (UKR) def Laura Siegemund (GER) 64 76 (3)
Katie Volynets (USA) def. [Q] Dalma Galfi (HUN) 75 61
Wang Xinyu (CHN) def Amanda Anisimova (USA) [LL] Mai Hontama (JPN) 61 63
[WC] Zhang Shuai (CHN) def McCartney Kessler (USA) 76 (5) 76 (1)
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McCartney Kessler can’t be feeling too good about this…. if you can’t even beat …… etc etc …
At some point in your life, “stringer”, you will stop being a jerk. We can only hope.