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S. Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament. On day two of the U.
S. Open 2024, a losing streak derby played out, the Grand Slam rivalry , and the shot of the tournament was a lock. If you’d like to follow our fantastic tennis coverage, please click here .
Who is the unluckiest loser? Tuesday’s match between China’s Zhang Shuai and the American Ashlyn Krueger was like the opposite of the immovable force meets unstoppable object. It pitted Zhang, on a 22-match losing streak, against Krueger, who had lost all six of her main-draw matches at a Grand Slam. Something had to give, and in the end it was Krueger who stopped her unwanted sequence by coming back from a bagel to register a 0-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory.
The result leaves Zhang trying to come to terms with now 23 straight losses, way past the previous WTA record of 18 and also surpassing the ATP record of 21, held by Vince Spadea. Zhang last won a match in January 2023 at the Lyon Open, when she was ranked in the world’s top 25. It’s been a devastating collapse since then for a player who took six months out from the sport at the back-end of last year and into 2024, in an attempt to recharge and arrest the slide.
After losing this latest match, she and Krueger shared a warm embrace at the net. Krueger in some ways knows what Zhang has been through, but her poor run seems like nothing compared to.