Zhang Shuai snaps 24-match losing streak by defeating American McCartney Kessler in Beijing

Zhang Shuai's run of futility on the singles court—specifically, 1 year, 7 months, and 25 days of it—is over. The 35-year-old former world No. 22 hadn't won a singles match since Jan. 31, 2023, but snapped that streak in style on Wednesday on home soil in Beijing by defeating American McCartney Kessler in the first round of the WTA 1000 China Open, 7-6(5), 7-6(1).

Zhang's skid was the second-longest losing streak by a WTA player (not including Billie Jean King Cup) in the Open Era, per tour records. (The longest? Swede Madeleine Pegel lost her first 29 matches, in the tour's early days from 1968 to 1972.)

Some of those losses were heartbreaking, in more ways than one. The first of them was a 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 loss to the now-retired Anett Kontaveit in Abu Dhabi last February, one of seven three-setters in the two dozen matches. Then there was the controversial and dramatic first-round match against local wild card Amarissa Toth in Budapest last July, where Zhang was reduced to tears after an officiating decision went against her, , and retired from the match after one set played. At the US Open just weeks ago, she won a 6-0 first set against another American, Ashlyn Krueger, and was a game away from victory before losing 0-6, 6-1, 7-5.

Against world No. 65 Kessler, who won her first tour-level title in Cleveland this summer and served for the opener before Zhang rallied, Zhang responded with aplomb after failing to convert a match point in the second set (she missed a forehand drive volley into the net at 5-4) to still close things out.

"I think that this is the perfect timing," Zhang told WTA Insider's Courtney Nguyen after the win. "My first win at a WTA tournament was 15 years ago at China Open, and then the next day I beat the No. 1 player [Dinara Safina in 2009].

"Maybe God has a plan."

Zhang is no stranger to long losing skids. She famously went winless her first 14 main-draw matches at Grand Slam tournaments and was contemplating retiring from tennis ahead of the 2016 Australian Open, before breaking that spell with a stunning first-round upset of then-world No. 2 Simona Halep on her way to the quarterfinals.

But she was in a different place in her career then than she is now. Last year, physically and mentally exhausted from the toll that constant traveling took (she did not return to China when the country was locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic) on her, she shut down her season in August and didn't play for six months. She returned in Dubai in February, playing on a protected ranking, and this year has reached three finals in doubles: two with Miyu Kato of Japan, and the US Open final with Kristina Mladenovic.

Zhang will face No. 6 seed Emma Navarro, the US Open semifinalist, in the second round.