Zhang Shuai bows out of Birmingham Open
Improving Chinese player loses her semi-final match against top seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia
Zhang Shuai, a steadily improving Chinese player contesting her first premier level event in only her second grass-court tournament, was beaten by Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-2 in the semi-finals of the Birmingham Open on Saturday.
Top seed Ivanovic, 26, a grand slam winner and seven times a season-end top 20 player reached the first grass-court final of her career with the win.
She has been trying to overcome the uncertainties of this surface for most of her career, and claimed she is finally achieving that at the Wimbledon build-up event.
Zhang [Shuai] is a great player and you are going to hear a lot more of her
She certainly hit the ball with unstoppable force off the ground, especially from the forehand, and grew in confidence as the match went on.
However that happened only after an indifferent start in which she went 0-2 down.
“It was important to stay calm, because it’s grass and it can slip away from you fast,” she said.
She also did so by improving her ratio of first serves, creating a better platform for her ground-stroking power, which in turn made Zhang feel that she had to do more with the ball, bringing more errors.
