CHINA OPEN

October 6, 2026

Zhang Shuai

Press Conference

ZHANG-SINIAKOVA/Feng-Yuan

6-1, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: We will start with questions in English.

Q. Zhang Shuai, Welcome to Beijing. Your comments after the match about your friendship with Wang Xiyu, what it means to have that result I think went all over social media from the Asian Games. Made people emotional and feel for you. What was your thinking? Why did you feel like you needed to say all that? How have you felt with the comments?

ZHANG SHUAI: Yeah, first of all, I want to say same thing: Welcome to Beijing (smiling).

Yeah, I mean, Nagoya, I did very good job. Chinese tennis team, we got a really good job. We beat strong opponent. We hold the gold medal for the ladies singles.

Yeah, I mean, I'm really good friend with Xiyu. I know her since couple years ago when we play together. Maybe six years ago we play Fed Cup in Netherlands. She play amazing.

During the six years I saw she's struggling a lot, but not because she play not well. I think a lot tough moment, a lot tournament play against top player, and little bit when I'm start beginning the tour. That's why I know exactly what her feeling.

I always tell her that you have to be positive, you have to trust yourself, how good you are. But she always say, Oh, thank you. But she still feeling a lot pressure.

Also the media or the fans not understand her situation because they only looking the result. They don't care who you play against or how strong opponent, how good they are. They just say, Oh, you lost first round. Oh, you lost another first round. Oh, you dropped your ranking. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

I know her a lot of tough moment. I feel happy for her all the time when she won the tournament. I mean, not even 0.1 feeling sad and bad lost to her.

Yeah, that's the all story. Yeah, I tell all the media now, Can you please try to write some nice things, nice news to her, yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in Chinese.

Q. I know you have a very busy schedule from BJK to the Asian Games to the China Open. 24 hours for adjustment and rest. A really good match today. How did you adjust, recover yourself in such a busy schedule? How did you feel on the court first day?

ZHANG SHUAI: Every day in my life actually tennis is, of course, the most important thing. Every day I wake up, I think about my practice, my focus of the practice, what kind of training is needed. I look at my body to check on my health.

When I wake up, I brush my teeth, eat something, and after that I go directly to the court. Whatever I want to practice, whatever I want to focus on the training. Whenever I'm done with that, I'm happy to finish the day. People who know me will understand this.

One day for me I would have to do a practice until I'm satisfied with it. After that, I will be happy. I will have a smiling face when I see anyone. If I don't have a good practice, I will be wholly immersed in the training, in the mindset. I don't see any progress, I need to make changes. I will try to squeeze more time to practice on the court. This is me.

Coming back from Nagoya to here, it was only a two-day turnaround. I did four hours of training. Yesterday was three hours.

Coming to the China Open yesterday afternoon, there was only one practice session, one hour, that was it. Before the match today I wasn't really certain whether I could implement my strategies, my plan, because I don't practice enough in the China Open. I do not have enough practice sessions.

The reality is this: there's nothing I could do. What I can do is to try my best, to do as best as I can. I'm really happy today with the performance I did. All I wanted to do, I played my tennis.

Of course, it's not perfect. But I still have time. This afternoon I can still make improvement. When I was taking a rest, when I was resting, it's counted by seconds. I didn't even have time to open the packages from my sponsors. I'm just wearing my outfit from the US Open for the match today. I just didn't have time for that.

Everything in my life revolves around tennis, tennis training sessions. I eat, I sleep, I take a break. Everything is for better tennis. This is what a professional tennis player should do.

My practice partner was asking me what you want to do this afternoon. I can take you around. Her friends tell her about 798 Art District. I told her I've never been to 798 Art District, indeed.

I put everything in my life to tennis. Also I have received a lot, whatever I dreamed of, from tennis.

Q. Asian Games you beat a player from Kazakhstan. You also beat her in the Toronto Open, in the different tournaments and different events. How did you boost your confidence?

ZHANG SHUAI: You know me well. This is a very professional question. Everybody congratulates me.

One thing is that I was in the singles final. I got this very precious silver medal. Everybody is talking about singles, women's singles. The silver medal is really precious for a player in my age. It is almost a miracle. How can that be possible?

Person of my age, even when you play very well in the past, then you play more doubles, but it's hard to imagine I am dragging singles back. I am pulling myself up to a level in the singles play. Everybody was congratulating me. You are beating such a tough player.

In the several years I've lost to her several times. This is really a miracle. After the US Open, then Shenzhen Billie Jean King Cup, then the Asian Games. In the past two weeks I feel like I've been a warrior. Every day is a battle.

Someday I saw my friends. I didn't even have the energy to say hello to my friends. I need to conserve my energy. I did not even have the energy left to make small talk with my friends. I didn't have enough time for that because I was representing my country. It wasn't a joke. It was representing my country. It was a real battle to fight for my country. I would do my best every match. I'm putting my life into it, my whole life into a match.

Whenever I met with Putintseva on the tour, mostly 6-1, 6-2. For a tough player like her, from the bottom of my heart, I would say to myself, How can I beat a player like this? She's so good. She's so tricky. She makes it so hard for you. She never gives up.

I really think the match back in Toronto, that was my only victory for a while against her. It was Kazakhstan in the Fed Cup. It was a home court against her. The atmosphere was very intense between the two teams.

Every time at these moments, I always get the strongest version of myself at a critical moment like this. As a professional player, sometimes it's really hard to push myself to that level. I needed that kind of moment. We needed the Billie Jean King Cup and Asian Games to really push myself to that level.

That's the moment I discovered that I can be like this. My coach told me I have a lot of potential. When I was 17 years old, I saw a lot of potential. I'm surprised that at 37 I still have a lot of potential.

This match was different from the match in Toronto. Before Toronto it was in Washington. Putintseva, after Wimbledon, she didn't play any matches. She started from Toronto.

In that match I could see she wasn't really in a mood. From Europe to North America, the bounces were quite different. There weren't that many rallies. She gave me free points. She made some mistakes.

At the end of the match she was a little bit puzzled. I won the match. The next one in the Asian Games, she was all in. She was representing her country. Everybody wanted to get the gold medal. That was a very tough battle.

After the match in the Asian Games, my coach wanted to say a few words to her. She said, Don't talk to me. Then she said, I'm sorry, I felt really bad yesterday.

I fully understand because she had really strong desires to win. In her interviews, she talked about before the match she thought of different strategies. She was really confident in beating me because she has really high winning rate in past years. She was very confident coming into this match.

After that I was really proud of my effort. All the performance, all the great records, were equivalent to my effort.

Q. We see a lot of Chinese players in the doubles in the China Open. This afternoon Wang Xiyu is also in the doubles. Anything you want to say to her?

ZHANG SHUAI: Chinese women's tennis, the doubles, has always been a priority on the tour. It has always been a breakthrough, a highlight of Chinese tennis. We had the breakthrough in the doubles, it was back in 2004, Athens Olympics. We got the first gold medal in the women's doubles. It started from the women's doubles. It has always been a strong suit of the Chinese team.

I see a lot of good Chinese players putting out really great performances, especially in the doubles. I'm really happy for them.

Also with the emergence of young players, that is the future of China's tennis. With such improvement, we are not sorry to the previous generations because they have done a lot to China's tennis.

I used to play a lot of singles matches. Once I reached my 30s, I felt I needed to play better in the doubles, I needed to put more effort into the doubles. It is a legacy of Team China. I want to pass on this legacy to the future generations.

I follow in their footsteps, became champions in the Grand Slams. I see other people making breakthroughs in the doubles. I look forward to the breakthroughs of the younger generations. I look forward to better performances from them.

I've been pairing with or practicing with different Chinese players. We practice together. We improve together. I look forward to a better future for China's tennis. I look for good results from them today.

They did a good job today. In the first set they were trying to adjust to the conditions here. (Indiscernible) doesn't play that much doubles. It is the first time for them to play together in a match.

In the second set I saw great improvement. They made adjustments. In the second set they were playing better and better. I see good potential from excellent players. They can improve their ranking on the tour.