MONTREAL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese veteran Zhang Shuai topped 10th seeded Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia to advance to the second round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal here on Tuesday.
The No.23 seed crashed out of the final round of the qualifiers, only to show up in the women's singles as the lucky loser, and played a slow start, trailing 1-4, but managed to cushion the blow and finally stormed to a hard-fought 7-6(5), 6-2 victory over Sevastova.
Another win for a Chinese player saw Zheng Saisai, who captured her first WTA title in San Jose just two days ago, suffer a dismal first round exit after losing to German veteran Tatjana Maria.
Zhang Shuai will face Ekaterina Alexandrova from Russia in the next round, who breezed past Japans' Misaki Doi 6-2, 6-2.