Youngster Zhang Ruien once again made a breakthrough and reached the last eight of the ITF Tour for the first time in his career. In the match against Popa, Zhang Ryan played well, knocking out his opponent 2-1 after a fierce break match to advance to the last eight of the Antalya tournament. Together with the previous three qualifying rounds, she has won five consecutive games at the ITF for the first time.
The second round of the Antalya W15 women's singles will be contested with 15-year-old Zhang Ryan facing 17-year-old Romania's Popa. The latter is currently ranked 848th in the world, while Zhang Ruien is not yet ranked. As the hope of China's women's tennis, Zhang Ruien said at a young age that she would succeed Li Na in the future.
Under the cultivation of his parents, Zhang Ruien has improved very quickly, and when he participated in the World Junior Tour (to Nadal Online School) in 2018, he reached the finals in both the clay and hard court categories, and won 2 runners-up. Perhaps very confident in her abilities, Zhang Ryan parachuted directly into the ITF this season, and as a result, she lived up to expectations and reached the main draw in the second week.
In this tournament, she played even better, sending 4 eggs in 3 qualifying rounds to advance to the main event. In the first round of the main draw, she scored her first career point 7–6 (0), 6–2 Cottella. Due to the high ranking and age of the opponent, this battle is more difficult for Zhang Ruien. But unexpectedly, she still completed the challenge.
In the first set, the opponent serves first. Zhang Ruien took the lead in the first game with a double error in the last minute of his opponent. But since then, the two sides have entered mutual destruction mode. In the first 8 games, Zhang Ruien led 5-3 with the advantage of 3 breaks and 1 more break. In the ninth game, Zhang Ruien scored three consecutive points after 15-30, and while breaking serve again, he also won the first set 6-3.
In the second set, the opponent launched a fierce counterattack. Zhang Ruien was broken three times in the 1st, 5th and 9th games, and was beaten back by his opponent 6-3.
In the tiebreaker, Zhang Ruien came up and broke the belt to save 3 consecutive games. But since then, the two sides have again entered mutual destruction mode. In the first six games, Zhang Ruien led 4-2 with one more break advantage. In the seventh game, she scored four consecutive points after 0-30, and while reversing the break, she also changed the score to 5-2. In the eighth game, she scored four straight points to cash in on the victory and finally ended the suspense 6-2.
The data shows that Zhang Ruien scored 65% on one serve, 53% on one serve, and cashed out 9 of 16 break points, with a total score of 82 to 77. With this victory, Zhang Ruien scored 2 points. Importantly, she won five consecutive wins at the ITF for the first time and reached the last eight for the first time in her career.