Anastasia Zakharova opened her WTA 1000 campaign in Beijing with a win over Yushan Shao. The round of 128 match ended 6:0, 6:2, and the Russian advanced to the round of 64 without dropping a set. The event is being played on hard courts, with a prize fund of $9.4 million.
Zakharova took the first set to love, not allowing her opponent to win a single game. In the second set, Yushan Shao held serve twice, but it did not change the outcome: 6:2 and an overall 2:0 score in sets. Over the entire match, the Chinese player won only two games.
Ranking gap and on-court gap
According to api.tennis, Zakharova is ranked No. 107 with 679 points, while Yushan Shao is No. 679 with 57 points. The gap in the players’ rankings was reflected on court. In the head-to-head record, it is now 1:0 in favor of the Russian.
For Zakharova, this victory ended a losing streak. Before Beijing, she lost in the first round in Seoul to Jelena Ostapenko 4:6, 1:6, fell to Naomi Osaka 6:7(8), 6:7(7) in the opening round of the US Open, and lost to Kylie Collins 4:6, 3:6 in the second round in Philadelphia.