DESPITE not winning a game in the opening set of her Round of 32 match in Beijing, Polish 23rd seed Magdalena Frech turned her form around to take down higher ranked opponent Diana Shnaider and reach the fourth round of the China Open.
The 31-year-old lost their only previous encounter back in Toronto when the 20-year-old Shnaider got up in a tight three-set contest. Both players entered the year having not won a title, but both cracked through for their maiden trophies, with Shnaider having now notched up three and rising to 16th in the world.
Snaider was all over Frech in the opening set, winning 12 of 16 points off her serve and breaking three times from as many opportunities, all while not facing a break point, By comparison, Frech won just four points on serve, and none of the six points off her second serve, struggling hard to get into the contest.
However the tide began to turn in the second set, as Frech found her groove, winning 78 and 67 per cent of her first and second serve points off a 75 per cent clip. That 18 of 24 record helped her only face one break point opportunity – which she saved – while converting two of four off Shnaider’s serve as the young Russian dropped a level.
The more experienced Frech took full advantage of the momentum, able to win another 15 of 19 points (79 per cent) off her first serve in the deciding set, which included three aces and winning eight of 12 (67 per cent) off her second serve. The Pole also broke the only time in the third set, and was able to secure a spot in the Round of 16.
The other major talking point from the day was second seed Jessica Pegula‘s fighting performance against Russian Veronika Kudermetova to reach the fourth round. The world number three lost both previous encounters against the 32nd seed, but has been in ripping form of late, winning two titles and rising up to third off the back of terrific North American form.
She was joined in the fourth round by fellow top seeded American Coco Gauff who ousted Brit Katie Boulter, while also on the Capital Group Diamond (centre court) Chinese wildcard Shuai Zhang won 6-2 6-3 over Belgian Greet Minnen in front of home fans.
Spaniard Paula Badosa continued her great form as well with the 15th seed knocking off Slovakian qualifier Rebecca Sramkova, while Ukrainian qualifier lived to see another day with a convincing upset win over Armenian Elina Avanesyan, 6-3 6-1.
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