No. 3 seed Amanda Anisimova was pushed to the limit against Zhang Shuai on Sunday night at the China Open before she saw off the veteran’s challenge in style.
Beijing: Scores | Draws | Order of play
The 7-6(11), 6-0 win for Anisimova was a match of two halves — against a determined opponent who admitted afterwards that she wasn’t 100% well physically. An epic first set gave way to a dominant second-set performance by the two-time Grand Slam runner-up, with the 1 hour and 27-minute win putting her through to the Round of 16 for the second straight year.
“I was really happy with how I was able to fight my way through it and find my rhythm there,” Anisimova said afterwards while praising Zhang as an “amazing player and great athlete.”
Breaking down the first-set epic: The opening set clocked in at 63 minutes on its own, and saw both players have a plethora of chances. Zhang — a quarterfinalist last year in an effort that resurrected her singles career — raced out of the gates by winning eight of the first 10 points, and led 5-3 later on.
Two points from falling behind, Anisimova came alive and won three straight games — parlaying that momentum into leads of 4-0, 5-1 and 6-2 in the ensuing tiebreak.
In all, nine set points came and went for the two players from there: five for Anisimova and four for Zhang. But Anisimova’s forehand made the difference in the end. At 11-11, she struck one that was too big for Zhang to handle, and the World No. 4 fired a winner down-the-line to finally end the set.
The tiebreak was the longest in Anisimova’s career at tour level in total points, and the equal-longest for Zhang, who also played 24 points against Oceane Dodin in Nurnberg in 2017.
Anisimova is queen of clutch: Two season trends continued for the American in the victory. She is now 9-3 in tiebreak sets in 2025 and is 11-0 in WTA 1000-level matches where she won the first set.
A milestone moment: The win was also Anisimova’s 150th of her career at Hologic WTA Tour level. She is the third player born since 2000 to achieve that feat after Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff.