Peng Shuai into quarters of US Open for the first time

Shuai Peng

New York, Sep 1 (IANS)

World no. 39 Peng Shuai of China defeated Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4 to reach the US Open quarter-finals, marking her first women's singles final eight appearance in a Grand Slam tournament.

Peng had previously reached Grand Slam fourth round five times, but lost all of them. Playing her 37th Grand Slam tournament, Peng Sunday finally found a way to break the jinx, reports Xinhua.

Peng was rated a one of the best doubles players, holding two Grand Slam doubles titles and once the World No.1 ranking, but she had to wait patiently for success to come her way in the singles.

Sunday's victory made Peng the third Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final, after Li Na and Zheng Jie.

Peng finished a strong match, hitting as many as nine aces. She made just seven unforced errors, 14 fewer than her 14th-seeded opponent.

Having taken down the fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska and 28th-seeded Roberta Vinci en route to the final eight, Peng will be meeting 17-year-old Swiss Belinda Bencic, who eliminated No.9 seed Jelena Jankovic earlier in the day.