Facing the No. 3 seed in the tournament and the world No. 5 Russian star Medvedev, Chinese player Zhang Zhizhen once again created a surprise.
After three sets of fierce battles, Zhang Zhizhen finally won a thrilling victory with a score of 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5) and successfully advanced to the quarterfinals of the ATP500 Halle Open.
This is the second time in Zhang Zhizhen's career that he has defeated the top five players in the world. After this victory, Zhang Zhizhen's real-time ranking has reached a career-high 39th.
And the excellent grass court condition he is showing now also gives people more expectations for Zhang Zhizhen's upcoming Wimbledon Grand Slam tour.
has no stage fright and defeated the top five players again
At the 2023 US Open, Zhang Zhizhen defeated the Norwegian star Rude in one fell swoop, defeating the top five players for the first time and creating a new history in his personal tennis career.
And now, such a strong performance has been staged again. In the quarter-finals of the ATP500 Harley Open that ended in the early morning of June 20, Zhang Zhizhen once again contributed to the "lower than upper" performance.
Facing the Russian star Medvedev, who is currently ranked 5th in the world and was once ranked 1st in the world, Zhang Zhizhen did not show any stage fright. He quickly mobilized his state in the first set and won 6-3, taking the lead in blowing the clarion call for attack. .
Although they lost the second set 2-6, in the final set, Zhang Zhizhen once again showed his "big heart" and won consecutively in the tie-break of the final set after falling behind 3-5. 4 points, and the final tiebreaker 7-5 sealed the victory of this game.
In this game, both of them got 5 break points respectively. Zhang Zhizhen completed 2 break points, one less than his opponent. In terms of the total score of the game, Zhang Zhizhen was also two points behind Medvedev, 98 to 100.
Zhang Zhizhen and Medvedev have a good relationship during the tour.
However, Zhang Zhizhen’s good performance in grasping key points made Zhang Zhizhen the winner despite lagging behind in the total score.
Previously, Zhang Zhizhen had played against Medvedev once on clay court in 2016. Zhang Zhizhen, who was ranked 418th in the world at that time, also played against Medvedev, who was still ranked 244th in the world at that time. After three sets, the Russian finally won the third set in a tie-break.
When they met again, Medvedev had evolved into a Grand Slam champion who had reached the top of the world, but the person who won the tiebreaker in the final set became today's "China's No. 1 Brother" Zhang Zhizhen.
is in hot form, and Wimbledon is even more anticipated.
After continuous breakthroughs in recent years and confrontations with world-class players, Zhang Zhizhen is no longer the same as in the past, both in terms of technical and tactical abilities and mentality. Another victory for
against top 5 players is another proof of its current hot state and strong mentality. After the game, Zhang Zhizhen also admitted that he did not think it was impossible to win against a master.
"It was a tough match. I lost a tie-break before (last week in Stuttgart), so today when we got to the tie-break again I was thinking, 'OK, it's time to get it done.' Revenge'. "
With the desire to regain the victory, Zhang Zhizhen, as he said, "successfully controlled the game to the end." After defeating Medvedev, Zhang Zhizhen's real-time ranking also reached a career-high 39th (the previous highest ranking was 42nd), and he is a little closer to the "small goal" of entering the top 30 in the world.
It is worth mentioning that although the overall winning rate is not as good as that on hard courts, Medvedev is also quite competitive on grass. He also reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year, but lost to the eventual champion in the semi-finals. Alcaraz.
Grass courts are not Zhang Zhizhen’s specialty. Before facing Medvedev, Zhang Zhizhen’s career grass court winning rate was only 37.5%, which was the worst winning rate among the three major court types: hard court, clay, and grass. But now on grass courts On the Internet, "China's No. 1 Brother" also showed a fiery state.
Zhang Zhizhen revealed that he signed up for competitions in Stuttgart, Halle and Eastbourne this year on grass. After Stuttgart stopped in the first round, Zhang Zhizhen has the possibility of creating more career history in Halle.
And his state has also given him greater expectations for his upcoming trip to the third Wimbledon main draw in his career. Facing the approaching grass-court Grand Slam, Zhang Zhizhen had expressed his confidence early before.
"I haven't won the main draw at Wimbledon yet, so I'm still looking forward to this year's Wimbledon. My previous experience has given me a better understanding of grass, and I hope I can make a breakthrough."
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