Chinese men's tennis ace Zhang Zhizhen reached a new milestone in his country's history in the sport, after outlasting American Christopher Eubanks 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the semifinals at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle, Germany on Friday.

Zhang trailed 5-2 in the third set, but rattled off five consecutive games to secure the victory, which makes him the first Chinese man to reach an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour-level semifinal on grass in the Open Era.

"It started well in the first set, as I broke his serving game. But my serve was not quite stable in the second set," said Zhang. "What's good was my mentality, as I didn't give up a bit when I fell behind 5-2 in the third set, so I'm quite proud of my performance today."

By reaching his second Tour-level semifinal, Zhang has moved up nine places to No. 33 this week in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, to set himself up for a new career high.

The 28-year-old will next face Italy's world number one Jannik Sinner, who edged past Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff 6-2, 6-7(1), 7-6(3).

"I'm looking forward to the semifinal against Jannik, just like playing against Daniil (Medvedev, on Wednesday). We started from the futures tournaments around the same time, but now they (Jannik and Daniil) are top five players, so I want to know our gap in the match," added Zhang.