U.S. Open Finalist Pushes Past 36-Year-Old Local to Continue Winning China Open Quest

World number four and two-time Major finalist for the year, American Amanda Anisimova, showed the extent of her skills today in her match against Shuai Zhang from China. The two have only played once before, seven years ago in the Japan Women’s Open in Hirishima, where Anisimova was just 17 years old and upset Zhang 7-6, 7-5 in a riveting faceoff. Today, the competitiveness and intensity between the two remained the same during the one-hour and 27-minute match, where the two stretched each other to the limits of their game. Zhang set out the beginning of the match with every intention of redeeming revenge for Anisimova’s upset of her in the past, and very nearly achieved it. It would be Zhang now carrying out the upset, roles reversed, but Ansimova found a way, as always, to keep her explosive game and frustrations from overwhelming her from securing a win.

Game Styles, Differences, and Similarities

Zhang has had a long career on tour, and to survive it as successfully as she has, both in singles and doubles, one would have to be incredibly wise and crafty, which she verily is. Her prolific doubles career has honed the comfort and sharpness of her net game, making her a weapon all over the court, not just at the baseline, where she is incredibly agile and tactful with her shot selection and placement. Unfortunately for her, Anisimova is in the same boat exactly; incredibly comfortable at the net, and holds an eye for setting up points to close them out there. It’s also no secret that the American is a terror on the baseline and punishes every ball she comes across, be it forehand or backhand. 

Anisimova is widely regarded as the most powerful player on the WTA at the moment, but with that power comes a lot of room for error, which sank her quite a bit in the beginning. Zhang also did something interesting that both helped her and likely unbalanced Anisimova for a bit before she could adjust to it after a while during the match; she remained almost right on the baseline during rallies and serve returns, rather than further back as many would prefer to do with big hitters. This tactic gave the Chinese player a wonderful vantage point of taking all her opponent’s rally balls earlier or almost on the rise as she swings it back. Anisimova would actually have to deal with her own might as it’s returned to her, plus Zhang’s own quick swings.

Zhang, who is currently ranked 112, is not quite as powerful, though her groundstrokes are not a tickle by any means. She strikes hard and fast, and goes for her angles just as Anisimova does, but with slightly more caution. Something that saw her running ahead quickly in the first set. One big difference between the two is that Anisimova holds a massive serve that gets her many low-energy points back-to-back at a frequency her opponent has to grind a lot more for. The American saw seven aces throughout the match compared to Zhang’s one, and two double faults actually leave the elder player in a negative.

How Anisimova Dug Out the Win

Though Anisimova’s service ran circles around Zhang’s, the Chinese player still had several chances to win the set before it was brought to a tiebreak. It all came down to Anisimova eventually warming up and reeling back on high-risk and reward shots a little. She bothered to rally rather than kill on sight. Yes, cracking every service return for a would-be winner looked wonderful and was easy, but the misses were building up, and she could not quite afford them. The American cut some space from the lines and rallied a bit more before going in for her usual kills. Even there, she still reduced some power from the shots, as she overshot a few. There, Zhang actually began to make some unforced errors out of nowhere, and Anisimova got to resume making some low-risk service return winners of her own once more, as her opponent’s confidence was sufficiently shaken from the momentum shift.

By the second set, Anisimova had flourished and recalibrated well into her own game again, swinging fully for winners on every ball without discrimination and finding the mark every time. Zhang herself had slowed down, playing a high-energy game in the first set, trying to match the American’s power, but now she was empty of energy. Now, only Anisimova’s shots were deep and solid; Zhang’s were tired and defensive, short ones. It’s no surprise at all why Anisimova won the set and match at love, the final score being 7-6(11). Zhang only won eight points in the second set.

The world number four will go on to the next round to play Czechia’s Karolina Muchova in the Round of 16. They have met once before, in 2022 at the French Open. In that match, Anisimova defeated her in three sets. The match will be played at 10:00 p.m. EST.