By sportswriter Spencer Musick
BEIJING, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Home favorite Zhang Shuai powered into the quarterfinals of the China Open, upsetting world No. 3 Angelique Kerber of Germany here on Thursday 6-1, 2-6, 6-0.
Zhang, the world No. 45, showed strong shooting on return from the outset, breaking her opponent's first service game to race to a 3-0 lead out of the gate.
Both players held serve to 4-1 for Zhang, who got yet another break to go four set points up. She then tilted the momentum on court solidly in her favor to take the first set with ease.
The second set was much more of a struggle for both players. The two fought to deuce on Zhang's first service game, with Kerber getting the break she needed to regain the upper hand on court. Both then held serve to 5-2 for the German, who managed to get another break and force a decider. Zhang double faulted four times on the way to losing the second set.
Zhang managed to turn things around decisively in the third, breaking all of her opponent's service games and winning 86 percent of her own first service points on the way to dealing out a bagel set to the German in one hour, 28 minutes. Kerber coughed up 13 unforced errors in the third set to only three for Zhang.
Zhang will meet world No. 8 Naomi Osaka of Japan in the quarterfinals.
