You could have been forgiven for getting whiplash from the ball chasing Zhang Shuai 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 from No. 14 seed Emma Navarro in the first round Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open.
Although the match went to three sets, it only lasted 1 hour and 36 minutes in total. For comparison, the entire contest could have fit inside the second set alone of Barbora Krejcikova’s fourth-round comeback at the U.S. opener against Taylor Townsend, which lasted 1 hour and 39 minutes. And while Krejcikova and Townsend packed all the drama into this classic knife-edge set, Zhang and Navarro delivered wild swings throughout the swing.
Wuhan: Scores | Draw | Order of play
Zhang already had experience defeating Navarro on home soil, having beaten the American 6-4, 6-2 in the first round in Beijing just over a year ago. The 36-year-old picked up where she left off, swarming the net and shaking off five straight 1-0 games to take a 5-1 lead. Although Zhang needed five section points to close out the opener, there were few signs of the roller coaster ride ahead when she broke out for 2-1 in the second set thanks to a Navarro forehand error.
But the momentum swing was sudden and immediate. Navarro responded by running through eight straight games herself to go up 3-0 in the third set. The role reversal was categorical. Improving his serving efficiency and hitting his forehand with delisque, Navarro won an astonishing 32 out of 37 points in this passage of play.
Just as abruptly as Zhang had left the boil, the joker turned up the heat again. Fearing her form at Net again, she won 12 points out of 13 for Peg Navarro at 3-3. Former semi-finalist USA held a 40-0 lead in the next game, but Zhang’s falling winners were simply irresistible. Zhang denied him with a string of five straight points, and eventually 13 of the final 16 to seal a six-game run to victory. The result was his 23rd career Top 20 win – fittingly, the first since his earlier defeat of Navarro.
Afterward, Zhang credited her home crowd for spurring her on.
“In the final set, when I was 0-3, you all were giving me great energy to make a strong comeback, so thank you,” she said in her on-court interview.
Zhang, ranked No. 142, will face either Sorana Cirstea as she bids to return to the Wuhan third round for the first time since 2018. The Romanian advanced after Jelena Ostapenko was forced to retire due to heat illness following 6-0, 2-1.
