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With a come-from-behind win over the higher-ranked Tomas Martin Etcheverry, the 26-year-old Zhang became the first Chinese player to win back-to-back matches at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
This week also marks Zhang's first match wins at his home event.
"Before (this tournament) before I had zero wins, zero sets, so this time it's quite special for me," said the Shanghai-born Zhang after his 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over the 28th-seeded Argentine in the second round.
"Today was pretty hard to win because Etcheverry was giving a lot of toughness to me and, yeah, still I'm super excited."
Zhang showed the growing maturity that complements his increasingly potent tennis as he deftly changed tactics after dropping the first set against Etcheverry.
"Because (the) first set I had only one break," he said. "I mean, he had only one break up. His service game I couldn't make too many things because I feel my returning is something wrong.
"In the second set and third set, I tried to change a little bit my position and it worked."
Zhang is keeping the same level head on the excitement that surrounds the many milestones he is achieving in Chinese tennis. This includes becoming the first male Chinese player to beat a top-five player with his five-set win over Casper Ruud at the US Open.
"Again, we have so much history (we) can make because before … we couldn't have too many good results," Zhang laughed. "So I mean, hopefully we can put more history on my career. Yeah, I'm happy to do this part of job." Ben Shelton, a recent US Open semifinalist, also made an impact as he celebrated his first win in Shanghai achieved on a first trip to China.
"It's been some huge life changes over the last year," said 20-year-old Shelton after a 6-4 6-4 victory over Jaume Munar. "It's all been cool things for me to experience." While Zhang and Shelton will take time to enjoy their memorable victories, it's a luxury that No.9 seed Alexander Zverev won't have.
Zverev, who was runner-up to Daniil Medvedev at the 2019 Rolex Shanghai Masters, suffered a straight-sets loss to Roman Safiullin in the following match.
The world No.50 turned the tables after a three-set loss to Zverev in the recent Chengdu final; in a second career meeting with the German, the more authoritative Safiullin secured his 6-3 6-1 victory in 75 minutes. It followed a dramatic day at Qi Zhong Tennis Center, where seven seeds were eliminated by the close of play.
Earlier, Holger Rune claimed only two games in his upset loss to world No.122 Brandon Nakashima, who required little more than an hour to progress.
Australia's Alex de Minaur exited to Fabian Marozsan, while Felix Auger-Aliassime suffered a three-set loss to Marton Fucsovics.
Casper Ruud, the No.8 seed, had earlier navigated a see-sawing encounter with Yoshihito Nishioka as he opened play at Qi Zhong Stadium.
Hubert Hurkacz (No.16), Sebastian Korda (No.26) and Christopher Eubanks (No.29) were among other players to advance to the Rolex Shanghai Masters third round.
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