China's Zhang marks birthday by moving into Australian Open doubles quarters

MELBOURNE -- China's Zhang Shuai celebrated her 30th birthday in style on Monday, booking a place in the Australian Open women's doubles quarterfinal stage for the first time in her career.

Flying high after two matches in the tournament without dropping a set, Zhang and her Australian partner Sam Stosur continued their winning ways by overcoming Croatia's Petra Martic and experienced French competitor Alize Cornet in straight sets 7-5, 6-3.

With a local teammate and a huge contingent of Chinese fans cheering on the action in Melbourne, the pair have been buoyed by a massive amount of crowd support.

"Everyone says we're a good team and I think that we're a good team too," Zhang laughingly told Xinhua after the match.

"To be able to enter the final eight is my own personal best at the Australian Open, and I strive to continue even further, so I hope that in the next round I will have a good performance."

While Zhang has spent most of her time over the past few years focusing on her singles career in an attempt to minimize her rigorous workload, the Tianjin native said at last year's French Open that she had so much fun playing doubles she decided to play more often.

"I decided to play more doubles and mixed doubles for the enjoyment. I just kept having more and more fun and the performances kept getting better and better, so that's why I decided to compete at this year's Australian Open," Zhang explained.

Zhang and Stosur will now take on Czech duo Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova on Tuesday for a place in the semifinals.