Zhang Shuai had never before won a main-draw Grand Slam match in her long professional career, but at this year's Australian Open, the Chinese not only upset second seed Simona Halep in the first round, the victory that came just months after the 26-year-old's serious retirement contemplation, but now the qualifier continued the fairytale by stunning Alize Cornet, the hot player of this period, as the Frenchwoman came to Melbourne with the Hobart title under her belt and opened the tournament by losing just one game to Bojana Jovanovski.
Qualifier Zhang recorded a straightforward 6-3 6-3 victory over the 33rd-ranked Cornet and even though negative, she had a match better differential of winners to unforced errors: -14 to Cornet's -29.