China Open: Osaka survives huge scare to reach semis

US Open champion Naomi Osaka overcame her emotions to roar back and defeat unseeded Zhang Shuai 3 – 6 , 6 – 4 , 7 – 5 in a roller – coaster China Open quarter -final on Friday .
The 20 – year -old Japanese was broken on her first two service games and had tears in her eyes as the match threatened to slip away in the second set .

But the world number six gathered herself and — although she continued to look glum and flung her racquet about — found the resolve to pull through over three nail- biting sets .

Osaka faces either of the unseeded duo of Latvia ’ s Anastasija Sevastova or Slovak Dominika Cibulkova in the last four .

The 45 th -ranked Zhang — with the Beijing crowd on her side — raced into an early lead against an unusually erratic Osaka , who had won 24 of her previous 28 games .

The eighth seed , who stunned Serena Williams to win her maiden Grand Slam last month in New York , belatedly began finding some range .

But she continued to rack up errors and conceded the first set when she hit into the net . She was to make 66 unforced errors in all .

The 29 – year – old Zhang , who has won two career WTA singles titles, saved six break points to take the lead in the second set .
Zhang broke to go 2 – 0 up and Osaka — who has admitted struggling with the fall -out from the US Open final , when Williams rowed with the chair umpire — began welling up .

But Osaka defied her emotions to avoid the upset , although she barely raised a smile even in victory .

In the men ’ s quarter – finals , the Italian Fabio Fognini continued his march towards a fourth title of the season with a 6 -4 , 6 – 4 victory over Marton Fucsovics of Hungary .

( AFP )

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