PARIS, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China's top-ranked tennis player Zhang Shuai took on two strong comebacks to go past Donna Vekic of Croatia 7-5, 6-4, making into the women's singles second round of the 2017 French Open here on Monday.
Zhang, positioned 34th on WTA world rankings, held her serves twice with Vekic to tie the game at 2-all, before Vekic had the first break in the following game, and led 5-2 into the eighth game with some tricky hits.
Zhang then took five games in a row to turn around at 7-5.
The second set went on in a similar manner, as Vekic came back from 2-1, 40-0 down in the fourth game to ride on a three-game winning streak for a 4-2 advantage.
Again, it was Zhang who kicked off another surge for five games in a row, highlighted by an ace in the ninth game.
"After the ace, I knew that I could win the match," said Zhang.
Vekic saved three match points of Zhang, who still sealed the win on her Croatian opponent's double fault.
Zhang found it pretty hard to taste victory on clay this year, but taking her consecutive losses in recent weeks as good experience for her growth.
"I had to admit that I didn't play very well today despite the win. Actually, I have shown some qualities although I lost time and time again in the past several weeks," said Zhang.
"I met many strong opponents before on clay this year. When I play against a player who has a lower world ranking, I can still taste the win even though I'm not at the top," she added.
Zhang will face the 98th-ranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, whom she beat in Australian Open early this year, in the second round. One more victory would beat Zhang's previous personal best record in Roland Garros.
"She is a quality and competitive player despite her world ranking. It will a good matchup," commented Zhang.
