Zhang advances to Aust Open quarters as fairytale continues

Omnisports

January 19, 2016 11:27 AM

Zhang Shuai, the Cinderella story of the Australian Open, continued her fairytale run at Melbourne Park with a shock three-set win over Madison Keys in the last 16.

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Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai, the Cinderella story of the Australian Open, continued her fairytale run at Melbourne Park with a shock three-set win over Madison Keys in the last 16.

Zhang rallied to beat the 15th seed, and last year's semi-finalist, 3-6 6-3 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals on Monday.

Only a week ago, Zhang - ranked 133rd on the WTA Tour - was battling to book a spot in the main draw and without a grand slam win to her name in 14 previous attempts.

The 27-year-old also came within a whisker of retiring after failing to qualify for the US Open last year.

But now, having already stunned second seed Simona Halep in the first round, Zhang is an Australian Open quarter-finalist after fighting back to overcome Keys, who could barely run in the final set with her thigh heavily strapped on Rod Laver Arena.

"First I want to say bad luck for Madison with the injury. I'm very lucky today," Zhang told Channel Seven afterwards.

"Some people kept saying 'quarter-final, quarter-final' over there [pointing to the crowd] - it made me very nervous!"

Omnisports

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