Zhang Shuai climbs higher in personal ranking after moving to a favorable venue, with netizens humorously commenting: skipping the National Games makes her the big winner.

In the Angers 125 event, no matter if Zhang Shuai takes the championship or not, the surging popularity indicates that fans believe "the elder sister has already triumphed."

After winning the Yokohama 50 tournament in Japan and returning to the TOP 90 in rankings, many worry about Zhang Shuai’s relentless schedule moving to Angers; at 36 years old, she might exhaust herself before even facing opponents, unlike a 16-year-old rookie.

Therefore, Zhang Shuai’s performance in the first round against the Spanish player Basols at Angers became the focal point for fans and online viewers.

Although Basols is ranked more than a hundred places below Zhang Shuai, currently at 240th, and advanced from the qualifiers, making her incomparable to the sixth seed Shuai Hua, many fans still worried about Zhang’s debut at Angers due to her continuous play since the National Games.

Especially after seeing Basols’ first-set performance that far exceeded her world ranking, causing Zhang Shuai unexpected difficulties, these concerns intensified.

How tense was the first set for fans and netizens? From the very first game, the two players were locked in a fierce battle!

Since Zhang Shuai failed to convert her ranking and top seed advantage into a dominant win over Basols, and had no better solution against the aggressive Spanish player, the score remained very close throughout.

However, despite the opponent’s stubborn resistance, Zhang Shuai made no mistakes, and by the time they reached the tiebreak, the match was evenly matched.

Yet, some viewers in the live broadcast room commented that if the match continued like this, Basols exhausting herself and fiercely contesting Zhang Shuai might wear down the 36-year-old Chinese star.

Fortunately, after both players were tied at 2 points in the tiebreak, Zhang Shuai finally exploded with strength, scoring five consecutive points to shake off Basols and ultimately winning the first set tiebreak 7-3.

Seeing the Chinese star endure such a tough first set, even before the second set started, some predicted the next set would be equally challenging, hoping Zhang Shuai could hold on.

To everyone’s great surprise, after the first three games of the second set, Zhang Shuai reassured everyone by breaking Basols’ serve multiple times and achieving a dream start of 3-0.

Although Basols launched a fierce comeback, narrowing the score to 2-3, Zhang Shuai consistently maintained control of the match.

What deeply discouraged the Spanish player was that Zhang Shuai seemed to offer chances for a comeback, but after Basols missed them, the Chinese star quickly taught her a lesson again, reaching a commanding 5-2 lead.

At this point, all fans and netizens finally breathed a sigh of relief, saying the most nerve-wracking phase was over.

When Zhang Shuai sealed the match victory at 6-3, some sympathized with Basols, noting that in their first encounter, she experienced all the highs and lows of life at once, and this loss would likely take her some time to digest, as it was quite a blow.

Pulling Basols from the light of hope into the shadow of defeat also brought Zhang Shuai another pleasant surprise: with the 16 points gained from this win, her current world ranking rose to 85th, setting a new personal best in just a few days.

After the match, many expressed happiness for Zhang Shuai, saying that although missing the National Games was regrettable as she lost the chance to compete for gold and silver, it turned out to be beneficial; without skipping the Games, she wouldn’t have had this recent breakthrough and repeated ranking highs!

This view mainly stems from the fact that many top Chinese players who participated in this year’s National Games have had tough experiences afterward.

For example, Zhu Lin, Wu Yibing, Yuan Yue, and Wang Yafan had to withdraw from the 2026 Australian Open Asia-Pacific Wildcard Playoff in Chengdu due to exhaustion, missing a key chance to secure a wildcard for next year’s Australian Open.

Meanwhile, Zhang Shuai, who did not take part in the National Games, has remained energetic and active on the court, eventually not only qualifying directly for next year’s Australian Open but also improving her ranking to the current 85th position.

Currently, some optimistically predict that Angers has always been Zhang Shuai’s lucky ground—she was runner-up in singles and champion in doubles here in 2021 and 2022 respectively—and after this 125 tournament, her ranking may continue climbing, with a top 80 spot well within reach!(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Moonlit River’s Starry Sky)