KUNMING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's top men's singles player Zhang Zhizhen crashed out of the Chinese Tennis Association (CTA) Tour on Thursday after a closely-fought quarterfinal 7-6 (5), 3-6, 10-7 against 7th seed Mo Yecong.
The opening set started out well for Zhang, the top seed of the tournament in southwest China's city of Anning, who broke Mo's opening service with strong returns to go up 2-0. Mo got a break of his own in the 6th game with a beautiful passing shot down the line to pull level at 3-all. Both players then held serve to force a tiebreak that Mo claimed with fewer unforced errors.
In the second set, Zhang got a break off a series of unforced errors from Mo in the 6th game to go up 4-2 and served out the set to force a deciding tiebreaker.
But Mo's strong serves and solid baseline play proved too much for Zhang in the 10-point tiebreaker, in which Mo sealed a 10-7 victory with a service winner.
"I didn't have high hopes of beating the top player in China before the match. I did a better job at keeping my composure and holding serve today," 20-year-old Mo said.
Mo will play 9th seed Wang Chuhan in the semifinal on Friday. Enditem
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)