Zhang Shuai (tennis)

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Zhang.

Zhang Shuai
張帥

Country	People's Republic of China
Residence	Tianjin, China
Born	(1989-01-21) January 21, 1989 Tianjin, China
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	65 kg (140 lb; 10.2 st)
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US $792,106
Singles
Career record	259–165
Career titles	0 WTA, 14 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 73 (April 4, 2011)
Current ranking	No. 125 (May 20, 2013)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	1R (2011, 2012)
French Open	1R (2010, 2011, 2012)
Wimbledon	1R (2011)
US Open	1R (2008, 2011)
Doubles
Career record	141–112
Career titles	3 WTA, 8 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 29 (April 1, 2013)
Current ranking	No. 38 (May 20, 2013)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2011)
French Open	3R (2012)
Wimbledon	3R (2011)
US Open	QF (2012)
Last updated on: May 20, 2013.

Zhang Shuai

Medal record
Competitor for China
Women's Tennis
Asian Games
Gold	2010 Guangzhou	Team
East Asian Games
Silver	2009 Hong Kong	Singles
Bronze	2009 Hong Kong	Doubles

Zhang Shuai (simplified Chinese: 张帅; traditional Chinese: 張帥) (born 21 January 1989 in Tianjin) is a Chinese professional female tennis player. As of May 20, 2013, she is the fifth-highest ranked women's singles player from China, at World number 125 and the third-highest ranked women's doubles player at 38 which ranks as the seventh-highest Asian female doubles player.

Career

Career Summary

Zhang has enjoyed considerable success in singles on the ITF circuit, having won one $50,000 event, eight $25,000 tournaments and three $10,000 events between 2006 and 2009. As of October 2009, however, she had won only two main draw matches on the WTA circuit. Her peak ranking to date is World No. 73, achieved in 2011.

Early years

Zhang started playing tennis at age six.

2003–2005

The Chinese teenager participated in her first ITF event in November 2003 at the age of 14 as a main draw wildcard at the $25,000 tournament at Taizhou, but was heavily defeated by Tomoko Yonemura.

In 2004 she was wildcarded into two further $25,000 events and won her first match on the circuit in the first, at Beijing in May. She also entered qualifying for two $50,000 events towards the end of the year, winning one match in each case.

Starting 2005 with a lowly ranking of World No. 901, she entered ten ITF events at various levels during the year and improved her ranking to World No. 648 by its end. During the year, she successfully battled through qualifying to enter three $25,000 main draws, and won two main draw first round matches at this level, with victories over World No. 292 María José Argeri at Nanjing, China in May, and World No. 271 Sophie Ferguson at Wuxi, China in August.

2006

The new year began with Zhang trying her hand at entry-level $10,000 ITF tournaments, and the move paid dividends as she won her first two tournaments of the year outright to claim the first two titles of her young career, both successes coming at Shenzhen, China. On the back of these breakthroughs, her ranking was propelled upwards to World No. 500.

In March, she qualified successfully for a further $25,000 tournament at Canberra, Australia, before losing in the first round proper.

In May, a wildcard into the main draw of a $50,000 event at Beijing paved the way for her winning her first two matches at this level to reach the quarter-finals, where she lost to former Top 50 player Anikó Kapros. But the very next week, a further wildcard into the main draw of a $25,000 event at Tianjin, China was rewarded by outright tournament victory as she notched up the third title of her career and the first at $25,000 level.

Her ranking having leapt up further to World No. 346 by the middle of June, she battled through qualifying to enter the main draw of another $25,000 event at Changwon, Korea, and then won four further matches to reach the final before losing.

In July, now world-ranked No. 297, she gained direct entry to the main draw of a $25,000 event at Chongqing, China, and reacher her third successive final, defeating World No. 227 Melanie South in the semifinal, before losing to lower-ranked Russian talent Elena Chalova in three sets in the final. The very next week, she reached the semifinal at a $25,000 tournament at Chengdu City, where she faced South again, this time losing to her in two close sets.

In August, her strong form continued, as she reached another $25,000 quarter-final at Changsha early in the month, and then won her second career title at this level at Nanjing three weeks later. In the final week of the month, she entered the $50,000 event at Guangzhou and won one match before losing in the second round.

In September, her ranking having risen dramatically further to World No. 209, she attempted to qualify for the main draw of the $600,000 WTA tournament at Beijing, and took her much higher-ranked opponent, World No. 59 Jelena Kostanić Tošić, to three close sets before losing. A week later, she was wildcarded into the main draw of the $175,000 WTA event at Guangzhou, and took the first set against World No. 26 Anna Chakvetadze before eventually losing in three, 6–3, 5–7, 0–6. This promising although ultimately unsuccessful performance would be the last match of an eventful and highly gainful year for the Chinese teen.

2007

Zhang was a member of China's Fed Cup team in 2007.

In competitive singles, Zhang began the year world ranked No. 203, and despite losing her first three matches of year was propelled upwards into the World Top 200 at No. 200 by random fluctuations in the strength of the field around her by the time of her fourth tournament in mid-February. This position was short-lived as she continued to suffer disappointing results early in the year; but in April she scored one good victory over World No. 159 Lioudmila Skavronskaia, and subsequently, later the same month, took World No. 23 Tathiana Garbin to three sets before losing 4–6 in the third.

A period of unprecedented success on the ITF circuit followed, as she proceeded to win three back-to-back $25,000 titles and then one $50,000 title in China between late April and early June, dropping just two sets in twenty successive matches.

In late June, her ranking having soared from World No. 209 to a career high of World No. 153 on the strength of these successes, she extended her winning streak to 24 matches in a $25,000 event at Noto, Japan before losing in the final to Regina Kulikova whom she had just defeated in straight sets in the finals of both the two previous tournaments she won.

Undeterred, she returned to her winning ways at the next tournament she entered, another $25,000 event at Nagoya, Japan, after facing Kulikova in the final for the fourth tournament in succession. But the next week she lost in the final of a $25,000 event at Miyazaki, Japan, this time to Junri Namigata in straight sets; and a week later, now world-ranked No. 145, she could only reach the quarter-finals of a $25,000 event at Kirume, Japan before this time losing to Australian prospect Sophie Ferguson in three sets.

Nonetheless, once the results from her last tournaments had all been factored in, she reached a fresh career high of World No. 132 on July 23.

Mixed results ensued for the rest of the year, after she was largely unsuccessful in trying her hand at higher-level tournaments, and she ended the year world-ranked a slightly lower No. 155.

2008

Zhang began the new year strongly, recording her first two career Top 100 wins over World No. 79 Jill Craybas and World No. 91 Lilia Osterloh to qualify for the $145,000 WTA event at Auckland in early January, before losing in the first round of the main draw to World No. 90 Aravane Rezaï.

She reached the final round of qualifying for the Australian Open later that month after recording wins over World No. 129 Stéphanie Foretz and World No. 179 Elena Baltacha before losing a three-setter in the qualifying round to World No. 117 Tamarine Tanasugarn. This performance was sufficient to elevate her world ranking to World No. 141, just nine places short of her career best.

A disappointing string of six successive first round losses in straight sets followed, four in events of only $25,000 calibre.

In late May, in the first round of qualifying for the French Open, she defeated World No. 96 Anne Keothavong, but this was a rare success in a bleak spell that saw her ranking plummet to World No. 232 by the middle of July as she failed to defend her several ITF tournament victories from the previous summer.

Her form then showed signs of improvement, as she won three back-to-back matches to qualify for the $175,000 WTA event at Bad Gastein in Austria before losing in the first round proper, and then after taking a month off won through qualifying into the main draw of the US Open by successively defeating Jorgelina Cravero, World No. 107 Stéphanie Dubois, and World No. 137 Melanie South. Although she then lost to World No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in the first round of the main draw, 6–4 6–2, her world ranking, which had fallen to No. 243, was boosted slightly to No. 223 by her successes in the qualifying tournament.

She played only two more tournaments that year, both in September. She lost in the first round of the first; but at the second, the $600,000 event at Beijing, she won through qualifying, assisted by the early retirement of her high-ranked second-round opponent World No. 41 Olga Govortsova, before losing an extremely close battle in the first round proper to World No. 19 Alizé Cornet, 1–6, 6–3, 6–7. The ranking points accrued in her qualification for the main draw were sufficient for her to end the year up slightly again at World No. 212.

2009

This year she did not play in January, and as a consequence her world ranking had fallen to World No. 273 by the start of the following month.

Retreating to $10,000 level ITF events after a four-month break from competitive play, she found herself reaching only the quarter-finals of the first two she entered, losing to much lower-ranked opponents, but won the third outright, defeating rising star Claire Feuerstein in a closely fought three-set final at Lyon, although in the fourth she then proceeded to lose heavily in the second round to fast-rising World No. 460 Elena Chalova.

Raising her level back to $25,000 events in mid-March, she won just one match in two tournaments entered, a win over World No. 229 Stephanie Gehrlein at Tenerife, with losses to experienced opponents in World No. 134 Yvonne Meusburger and former Top 100 star Sanda Mamić following.

She did not play in April, but the month of May brought a return to form as she won her first $25,000 level event since 2007 at Nagano, Japan, although she did not have to face any player ranked in the Top 250 or indeed above her then-current ranking of World No. 262 on the way.

Zhang lost early to unheralded opponents in the next two $25,000 events she entered, but won her second of the year at the end of June in Xiamen, China, defeating World No. 196 Han Xinyun in the semifinals on her way to the title. This success propelled her ranking back upwards to World No. 218.

In August, she was stopped at the semi-final stage of a $25,000 tournament at Quanzhou, China, by a familiar adversary in the form of World No. 165 Sophie Ferguson. Her subsequent attempt to qualify for the second year in succession for the U.S. Open was stopped at the second hurdle in her second loss of the year to Yvonne Meusburger.

In September, she narrowly failed to qualify for two successive $220,000 tournaments, losing in the qualifying round at both Guangzhou and Seoul, where Sophie Ferguson once again put paid to her hopes despite this time winning two fewer games than Zhang in the match, with the final scoreline 0–6, 7–6(5), 6–3.

But a remarkable turnaround in her fortunes was just around the corner. After entering the Premier Mandatory event 2009 China Open main draw as a wildcard, world ranked No. 226, she reached the 3rd round by first defeating World No. 33 Iveta Benešová in straight sets, and then upsetting the current World No. 1 Dinara Safina in two close sets, 7–5, 7–6. These were her first two victories over any player currently ranked in the Top 75 for reasons other than the early retirement of her opponent, her first two victories over any player currently ranked in the Top 40 for any reason including the retirement of her opponent, and her first two victories over any opponent ranked higher than World No. 196 in 2009. She lost relatively comfortably in the third round to World No. 13 Marion Bartoli.

In beating Safina in this tournament, Zhang also incidentally surpassed the record set by Julie Coin in her defeat of Ana Ivanović in 2008, succeeding her as the lowest-ranked player to defeat a reigning World No. 1 in a WTA main tour event in the Open era. Coin was ranked World No. 188 at the time of her defeat of Ivanović, some 38 places above Zhang at the time of her defeat of Safina.

Zhang's ranking rebounded to World No. 160 following the tournament, still 28 places short of her career high.

2010

With making the semifinals in the 2010 Guangzhou International Women's Open, she cracked into the top 100 for the first time.

2011

At the Australian Open, she lost at the first round to Lucie Safarova 3–6, 7–5, 6–8.

2012

Zhang started her year at the 2012 Blossom Cup in Quanzhou. She defeated Nudnida Luangnam and Anna Floris in the first and second rounds respectively, before falling to Tímea Babos in the quarterfinals. Her next tournament was the 2012 Australian Open where she received a wildcard. She was beaten by Aleksandra Wozniak in the first round. Then, at the 2012 Monterrey Open, she lost to Gréta Arn in the first round. Next Zhang went to Indian Wells to play at the 2012 BNP Paribas Open where she was a qualifier. She lost to Simona Halep in the first round.

2013

• January: Started the year as the top-seed at the ITF Women's Circuit tournament, Innisbrook Women's Open in Innisbrook, Florida on clay with a first round lost to 468th ranked wildcard Asia Muhammad 3-6, 4-6. Skipping the Australian Open and remaining in Florida for another ITF Women's Circuit clay court tournament, the $25K Tesoro Women's Open in Port St. Lucie losing to 214th rank and 4th seed Tadeja Majeric 0-6, 2-6 in the semifinal. In doubles, she and partner Sharon Fichman were seeded 2nd and lost 6-3, 5-7 [12-14] in the quarterfinal to the eventual winners, qualifiers Angelina Gabueva & Allie Will.
• February: Zhang entered three WTA tournaments and played doubles with Janette Husarova: as the 3rd seed in the qualifying draw, lost to 647th ranked Abigail Spears 4-6, 5-7 in the 1st round of the qualifier in the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Qatar and lost to Lisa Raymond & Samantha Stosur 6-4,4-6 [6-10] in 2nd round.; lost to 61st ranked Anabel Medina Garrigues 5-7, 6-3, 2-6 in the 2nd round of qualifting in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and lost to Julia Goerges & Angelique Kerber in straight sets 6-7^(9-11), 5-7 in the 1st round. and lost to 23rd and 2nd seeded Hsieh Su-wei 2-6, 2-6 in the 2nd round in the BMW Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and lost to 2nd seeded team of Shuko Aoyama & Chang Kai-chen in the final 7-6^(7-4), 6-7^(4-7) [12-14].
• March: Returning stateside losing 2-6, 3-6 to 131st ranked wild-card Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the qualiying final of the Sony Open Tennis in Miami, Florida Teaming up with Megan Moulton-Levy, lost in the 2nd round 0-6, 6-4 [7-10] to 3rd seeded Nadia Petrova & Katarina Srebotnik.
• April: Lost 6-1, 0-6, 2-6 to Petra Rampre (#282) in the 1st qualifying round as the 7th seed in the Family Circle Cup on Daniel Island in Charleston, South Carolina. Zhang & Moulton-Levy lost in the semifinal to the top-seeded team of Andrea Hlavackova & Liezel Huber 0-6, 2-6. Playing as the 5th seed in the ITF's Legacy Credit Union Women's 25k Pro Circuit Challenger in Pelham, Alabama, she lost to the 197th ranked Ashleigh Barty 2-6, 6-4, 1-6 in the 2nd round. Playing in her first final as the 8th seed at the Dothan Pro Tennis Classic in Dothan, Alabama, lost 2–6, 6–4, 6–3 to Ajla Tomljanović (#171). As the 7th seed in the Boyd Tinsley Clay Court Classic in Charlottesville, Virginia, she lost to 381st ranked wildcard Allie Will 0-6, 2-6 in the 1st round.
• May: Entered the doubles tournament in the Mutua Madrid Open in Madrid, Spain with Zheng Jie as the 7th seeded team and lost in the first round 4-6, 1-6 to Kristina Mladenovic & Galina Voskoboeva. In Rome, Italy, she lost to the 5th seeded Madison Keys (#60) at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in the 1st qualifying round 2-6, 4-6. Again partnering with Zheng, the 8th seeded team lost to Dominika Cibulková & Monica Niculescu 3-6, 1-6 in the opening round. Entered the qualifying draw for the Brussels Open in Brussels, Portugal qualifying for the main draw.
• Future tournaments: Entering the qualifying draw of the French Open as the 14th seed in singles and entering the doubles with Zheng as the 12th seeds.

• 2013 Singles record 14-11 (6-6 in WTA)
• 2013 doubles record 8-8 (7-7 in WTA)

Personal life

Zhang is coached by Liu Shuo. Her hobbies are eating and music. Her parents are Zhang Zhiqiang and Wang Fengqin.

WTA career finals

Doubles: 5 (3–2)

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
Olympic Gold (0–0)
WTA Championships (0–0)
Premier Mandatory (0–0)
Premier 5 (0–0)
Premier (0–0)
International (3–2)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	10 October 2011	HP Open, Osaka, Japan	Hard	Kimiko Date-Krumm	Vania King Yaroslava Shvedova	7–5, 3–6, [11–9]
Runner-up	1.	26 February 2012	Monterrey Open, Monterrey, Mexico	Hard	Kimiko Date-Krumm	Sara Errani Roberta Vinci	2–6, 6–7(6–8)
Winner	2.	5 May 2012	Estoril Open, Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Chuang Chia-jung	Yaroslava Shvedova Galina Voskoboeva	4–6, 6–1, [11–9]
Winner	3.	22 September 2012	Guangzhou International Women's Open, Guangzhou, China	Hard	Tamarine Tanasugarn	Jarmila Gajdošová Monica Niculescu	2–6, 6–2, [10–8]
Runner-up	2.	3 March 2013	Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Hard	Janette Husárová	Shuko Aoyama Chang Kai-chen	7–6(7–4), 6–7(4–7), [12–14]

ITF Circuit Finals

$100,000 tournaments

$75,000 tournaments

$50,000 tournaments

$25,000 tournaments

$10,000 tournaments

Singles: 22 (14–8)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	February 13, 2006	Shenzhen, China	Hard	Ji Chunmei	6–1, 2–6, 6–1
Winner	2.	February 20, 2006	Shenzhen, China	Hard	Chen Yanchong	6–4, 6–2
Winner	3.	May 30, 2006	Tianjin, China	Hard	Xie Yanze	6–3, 3–6, 6–0
Runner–up	1.	June 20, 2006	Changwon, South Korea	Hard	Chen Yanchong	6–3, 6–3
Runner–up	2.	July 16, 2006	Chongqing, China	Hard	Elena Chalova	6–3, 3–6, 6–0
Winner	4.	August 21, 2006	Nanjing, China	Hard	Xie Yanze	6–3, 1–6, 6–4
Winner	5.	April 30, 2007	Chengdu, China	Hard	Ren Jing	6–2, 6–7(5–7), 6–0
Winner	6.	May 7, 2007	Chengdu, China	Hard	Xu Yifan	6–2, 6–3
Winner	7.	June 6, 2007	Changsha, China	Hard	Regina Kulikova	6–3, 6–4
Winner	8.	June 11, 2007	Guangzhou, China	Hard	Regina Kulikova	6–3, 6–1
Runner–up	3.	June 26, 2007	Noto, Japan	Carpet	Regina Kulikova	7–5, 6–1
Winner	9.	June 11, 2007	Nagoya, Japan	Hard	Regina Kulikova	6–3, 6–1
Runner–up	4.	June 11, 2007	Miyazaki, Japan	Carpet	Junri Namigata	6–4, 6–2
Winner	10.	March 2, 2009	Lyon, France	Hard	Claire Feuerstein	1–6, 6–1, 6–3
Winner	11.	May 18, 2009	Nagano, Japan	Carpet	Nikola Hofmanova	5–7, 6–2, 6–3
Winner	12.	June 6, 2007	Xiamen, China	Hard	Duan Yingying	6–2, 6–1
Winner	13.	March 1, 2010	Hammond, United States	Hard	Jamie Hampton	6–2, 6–1
Runner–up	5.	March 8, 2010	Clearwater, United States	Hard	Johanna Larsson	7–6(7–4), 6–0
Runner–up	6.	May 10, 2010	Saint Gaudens, France	Clay	Kaia Kanepi	6–2, 7–5
Winner	14.	May 31, 2010	Maribor, Slovenia	Clay	Laura Pous Tió	6–3, 3–6, 6–3
Runner–up	7.	August 2, 2010	Beijing, China	Hard	Junri Namigata	7–6(7–3), 6–2
Runner–up	8.	September 17, 2012	Ningbo, China	Hard	Hsieh Su-wei	6–2,6–2
Runner–up	9.	April 21, 2013	Dothan, United States	Clay	Ajla Tomljanović	2–6, 6–4, 6–3

Doubles: 12 (8–4)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	July 16, 2006	Chongqing, China	Hard	Ren Jie	Ji Chunmei Sun Shengnan	6–4, 6–3
Winner	2.	July 26, 2006	Chengdu, China	Hard	Ren Jie	Xia Huan Xu Yifan	6–4, 6–2
Winner	3.	July 10, 2007	Miyazaki, Japan	Carpet	Zhao Yijing	Natsumi Hamamura Ayaka Maekawa	6–4, 6–4
Runner–up	1.	November 5, 2007	Taizhou, China	Hard	Ren Jie	Ji Chunmei Sun Shengnan	7–6(7–5), 1–6, [13–11]
Runner–up	2.	February 9, 2009	Jiangmen, China	Hard	Xie Yanze	Hao Jie Kao Shao-yuan	6–0, 7–5
Runner–up	3.	March 2, 2009	Lyon, France	Hard	Pemra Ozgen	Lu Jingjing Sun Shengnan	6–4, 7–5
Winner	4.	March 16, 2009	Tenerife, Spain	Hard	Sun Shengnan	Paula Fondevila Castro Laura Thorpe	6–1, 6–2
Winner	5.	June 1, 2009	Komoro, Japan	Clay	Xu Yifan	Ayumi Oka Varatchaya Wongteanchai	6–1, 6–2
Winner	6.	August 2, 2010	Beijing, China	Hard	Sun Shengnan	Ji Chunmei Liu Wanting	4–6, 6–2, 6–4
Winner	7.	May 30, 2011	Nottingham, Great Britain	Grass	Kimiko Date-Krumm	Raquel Kops-Jones Abigail Spears	6–4, 7–6(9–7)
Winner	8.	October 31, 2011	Grapevine, USA	Hard	Jamie Hampton	Lindsay Lee-Waters Megan Moulton-Levy	6–4, 6–0
Runner–up	4.	January 8, 2012	Quanzhou, China	Hard	Kimiko Date-Krumm	Chan Hao-Ching Rika Fujiwara	6–4, 4–6, [7–10]

Performance timelines

Singles performance timeline

Tournament	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	SR	W–L
Grand Slams
Australian Open	A	Q1	Q3	A	Q1	1R	1R	A	0 / 2	0–2
French Open	A	A	Q2	A	1R	1R	1R		0 / 3	0–3
Wimbledon	A	A	A	A	Q2	1R	Q2		0 / 1	0–1
US Open	A	Q2	1R	Q2	Q2	1R	Q3		0 / 2	0–2
Win–Loss	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–4	0–2		0 / 8	0–8
Year-End ranking	200	155	212	153	91	126	122

Double performance timeline

Tournament	2010	2011	2012	2013	W–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	2R	1R	A	1–2
French Open	A	2R	3R		3–2
Wimbledon	2R	3R	1R		3–3
US Open	A	2R	QF		4–2
Win–Loss	1–1	5–4	5–4		11–9
Year-End ranking	158	49	34

See also

• Tennis in China

External links

• Zhang Shuai at the Women's Tennis Association
• Zhang Shuai at the International Tennis Federation