Wildcard Zhang wins maiden WTA singles title in Guangzhou

Playing in her first singles final, the 112th-ranked Zhang continued her run of straight-set victories and won the $500,000 hard-court tournament in front of her delighted home crowd.

(Reuters)

After an evenly-matched first set, Zhang ran through the second, winning 16 of the last 17 points against the 124th-ranked American.

Zhang, whose previous best singles performance was reaching the semi-finals in the same event in 2010, became the fifth Chinese player to win a WTA title after Li Na, Zheng Jie, Yan Zi and Sun Tiantian.

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)