In just over one hour, the world number three American, who was seeded second in Beijing, lost 6-4 6-0.
Badosa trailed 3-1 early in the first set, but she rallied to win 11 of the next 12 games, including eight straight, to win her first match over a top-five player since 2022.
World No. 19 Badosa said of the player, “She’s one of the ones I never want to face.”
“I knew it was going to be difficult because she is really strong, hits really flat, and changes direction quite effectively.
“Yesterday I prepared myself for a battle, but I think today everything worked pretty well.”
After defeating Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-4, 6-2, the world number 595 continued her incredible run at the competition and will now face Zhang Shuai in the quarterfinals.
Zhang entered her home tournament fresh off the second-longest run of losses on the WTA Tour during the open era, which started in 1968 when professionals were first permitted to compete in Grand Slam events. Zhang’s run of failures stretched over more than 600 days.
The injury-plagued two-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist is also the lowest-ranked player to have ever participated in the China Open main draw, a WTA 1000 event.
