Zhang’s run continues with 4th-round win over injured Keys

Shuai Zhang rallied from a set down to defeat a wounded Madison Keys 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 and advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals.

This round will feature a pair of key match ups between some of the biggest names on the women’s side, a very intriguing match up between 2 top 10 seeds, and a pair of unseeded players that are in search of their first grand slam semi final.

The Tianjin native, who had to go through the qualifiers to even compete in Brisbane, is into the 4th round of the tournament after dispatching American Varvara Lepchenko in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 on Saturday night. “But this time I really tried to concentrate, and I’m happy I won”.

“I just can only think about the next point”. “I make everyone cry”. I nearly win the match [but] I lost.

On Day 8 of the Australian Open, Victoria Azarenka and Angelique Kerber took care of business, while Zhang Shuai and Johanna Konta cemented their status as the Cinderella stories of the tournament.

“So many years of dealing with this pressure, not winning, feeling this rage, I think you need this to fire up”, she said.

The win was her seventh win of the tournament – she tallied three in qualifying – and she treated the match as if it were her very own Grand Slam final.

Fifteenth seed Keys stands in the way of Zhang’s quarter-final ambitions and the Chinese was relishing the prospect of another raucous crowd on one of the main showcourts.

He said it hurts sometimes landing on the hard courts as he chases balls other players would leave, adding “Maybe something snaps in my mind, and I just go for it…”

Another crunching forehand victor saw Zhang break the Uzbekistan-born world No 51 early in the second set and before too long she was serving for the match at 5-2.

The 24-year-old, ranked 47th, was once known for her nervous disposition but she has been serenely cool in Melbourne, notably in her tense three-setter with Ekaterina Makarova in the last round.

“It’s been a stressful few days, but I’ll try to rest up the next few days to get ready for the next one”, Murray said.

“I was actually with one leg on the plane back home, but I won the first match with the match point down”, Kerber said.

Melbourne Park has been a happy hunting ground for Azarenka, who has now made the quarter-finals or better five times in her last seven attempts.

By the second set, something was clearly awry.

China has been waiting for an heir to the 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open victor who retired in late 2014, although few would have tagged Zhang as the next player to break through. “But I felt Zhang had the mental side, the psychology”, Liu said.