Paula Badosa continued her sublime form as she defeated Zhang Shuai in straight sets to reach the semi-finals of the 2024 China Open.
The Spanish star earned a 6-1, 7-6(4) victory against the Chinese wildcard in the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing.
Badosa broke Zhang three times in a one-side opening set, before recovering from 1-3 down to take the second set on a tiebreak.
The 26-year-old has reached the last four in the Chinese capital without dropping a set in her four matches, having downed Jessica Pegula, Rebecca Sramkova and Viktoriya Tomova in the previous three rounds.
The Spaniard is seeking her fifth WTA title and second at WTA 1000 level, having won the biggest title of her career to date in Indian Wells in 2021.
Badosa has climbed from 19th to 15th in the live WTA Rankings as a result of her run, where she will face either Coco Gauff or Yulia Starodubtseva. She reached a career-high ranking of world No 2 in April 2022.
Badosa could climb to 13th place if she is a runner-up, while she will be the world No 9 when the rankings update if she secures the title.
She is the second Spanish woman to reach the semi-finals of the China Open since the introduction of the tournament in 2004 after Garbine Muguruza in 2015.
Two-time Grand Slam winner Muguruza won the title in Beijing that year, defeating Timea Bacsinzsky in the final.
Badosa’s run in Beijing follows her success during the North American hard-court season and she has now won 18 of her last 21 matches.
This outstanding streak started with Badosa winning the Washington title in August, and she subsequently reached the semi-finals in Cincinnati and the quarter-finals at the US Open before arriving in Beijing.
Badosa struggled for the first half of the season as she was hampered by a stress fracture in her back that she suffered last year, but she found form during the grass-court season.
Zhang, meanwhile, entered the tournament having lost a record 24 consecutive matches, but she turned her form around in remarkable fashion by earning four-straight set victories to reach the last eight.
The 35-year-old, who is a former world No 22, has risen 345 places from 595th to 250th in the live WTA Rankings with the 215 points gained from her run.
In her on-court interview, Badosa sent a warm message to Zhang and urged her not to retire.
“Look, first of all I want to say some words to Shuai,” she said. “She’s amazing as a person. You could see the level today also. I’m really happy for her because she went through very tough times.
“It shows how much of a fighter she is. She’s great. Her team is great. She’s always with a smile and supporting me even during the tour.
“It’s great to have a tennis player like her. What I told her in the net was that she shouldn’t retire because her level is really really high.”