MELBOURNE, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- For the first time in her career, China's Zhang Shuai has made it to the semifinal stage of the Australian Open women's doubles.
Pairing up with former world number one and U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur, the Sino-Aussie combo continued their incredible run at the tournament on Tuesday, beating out Czech duo Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4) in a hard-fought battle.
With a massive amount of support from local fans, the two have become a crowd favorite and have not dropped a set in the entire tournament.
"I think the match was very exciting because at one point we were 3-5 behind but we managed to get it to a tie break," Zhang told Xinhua after the match.
"This victory gives us a lot of confidence because this team won the French Open and Wimbledon last year," she explained.
The win now sets up a semi-final encounter against Marketa Vondrousova and Barbora Strycova, another all-Czech duo.
"Each pair is very competitive at this stage of the tournament but hopeful we can play well and take the match to them," Zhang added.
"Win or lose I am very happy with this tournament, this is definitely the best Australian Open of my career. In singles I made it to the third round and now I'm in the semifinals of the doubles. But of course I want to go even further," Zhang said.
