Zheng Qinwen

Zheng Qinwen (Mandarin pronunciation: ; born 8 October 2002) is a Chinese professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 7 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), achieved on 29 January 2024.

She won her first WTA Tour tournament in 2013 in Palermo, Italy (achieving the final also in the following year). Zheng has won two WTA Tour, one WTA Challenger and eight ITF singles titles, and was named the 2022 WTA Newcomer of the Year. She contested a major final at the 2024 Australian Open.

Junior career
Zheng was born in Shiyan, Hubei. Until the age of three, she spent time in her maternal grandmother's home in Chengdu, Sichuan, where her mother originated.

Zheng began playing tennis at age seven. Two months later, eight-year-old Zheng left her family in Shiyan to train in Wuhan. About three years later, she moved to Beijing to train with Carlos Rodriguez, the former coach of Zheng's idol Li Na, and then moved to Barcelona with her mother in 2019. She began working with coach Pere Riba in 2021.

2021: WTA debut, top 150
In January 2021, Zheng won the Tennis Future Hamburg, Germany where she defeated Linda Fruhvirtová in the final of the $25k event, held at the venue of the Hamburger Tennis-Verband.

On 20 June 2021, she won the final of the $60k Macha Lake Open in Staré Splavy, defeating Aleksandra Krunić in two sets.

Zheng made her WTA Tour debut at the Palermo Ladies Open, where she also recorded her first win defeating second seed Liudmila Samsonova in the first round.

2022: French Open 4th round, first WTA Tour final, & top 25 debut
At the Melbourne Summer Set 1, Zheng reached her first WTA Tour semifinal, beating Mai Hontama, former No. 2 Vera Zvonareva, and Ana Konjuh, respectively. She lost her semifinal match to second seed Simona Halep, in straight sets.

A week after the Melbourne Summer Set, Zheng qualified for her first major event, at the Australian Open where she defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the first round. In the second, she lost to fifth seed Maria Sakkari, in straight sets. As a result, she reached the top 100 at world No. 80, on 31 January 2022.

At the French Open, Zheng defeated Maryna Zanevska on her debut at that major. Next, she beat former French Open champion and 19th seed, Simona Halep, her first top-20 win, to move to the third round of a major for the first time in her career. She moved into the fourth round after Alizé Cornet's retirement. On 30 May 2022, she lost to top seed and world No. 1, Iga Świątek of Poland, in the fourth round, referring to menstrual cramps as a contributing factor. Zheng was still happy about her performance and glad that she was able to play against the world's number one. As a result, she moved to a new career-high of No. 54, on 6 June 2022, and reached the top 50, at world No. 46, a week later when she won her first WTA 125 title at the Open Internacional de Valencia defeating compatriot Wang Xiyu.

She debuted at Wimbledon and defeated Sloane Stephens in the first round. She won her second match at this major against Greet Minnen, before falling to the eventual champion, Elena Rybakina, in the third round.

In August, Zheng defeated fifth seed Ons Jabeur by retirement in the second round for her first top-10 win, and defeated Bianca Andreescu in the third round of the Canadian Open to enter the first WTA 1,000 quarterfinal of her career, losing to Karolína Plíšková in three sets. At the US Open, Zheng defeated Jeļena Ostapenko in the first round and Anastasia Potapova in the second round. She was beaten in the third round by Jule Niemeier, in straight sets.

At the Pan Pacific Open in Japan, Zheng became the first Chinese teenager to ever reach a WTA Tour final which she lost to Liudmila Samsonova. Her win over top seed Paula Badosa in the second round was her first completed top-10 win and second overall (after Jabeur in Toronto).

She also became the second teenager to make a WTA 500-level or higher final in the season, after Coco Gauff. As a result, she reached the top 30 at world No. 28, on 26 September 2022, becoming the first Chinese teenager to do so.

For her breakthrough season, Zheng was named WTA Newcomer of the Year.

2023: US Open quarterfinals, two WTA Tour titles, top 15
Zheng began the season with a win over former world No. 2 player, Anett Kontaveit, in the first round of the Adelaide International, saving match points in the third set to triumph in a final set tiebreak. She lost to Victoria Azarenka in the second round, and also reached the second round at the Australian Open.

On her debut at the Italian Open, she defeated Alizé Cornet, Anna Bondár, and compatriot Wang Xiyu to reach the quarterfinals of a WTA 1000 tournament for the second time in her career, and her first tour-level quarterfinal on clay. As a result, she reached No. 19 in the WTA rankings, becoming the fifth Chinese player to break into the top 20 – the first four in order of career-high ranking were Li Na (No. 2), Wang Qiang (12), Peng Shuai (14) and Zheng Jie (15). At the French Open, as the 19th seed, she beat Tamara Zidanšek in the first round, before losing to Yulia Putintseva in the second.

After the French Open, Zheng split from coach Pere Riba and began working with Naomi Osaka's longtime coach Wim Fissette.

The grass-court season yielded disappointing results, as she lost all three singles matches that she played. She received a wildcard into her next tournament in Palermo. As the second seed, she double bagelled Sara Errani, then beat Diane Parry, Emma Navarro and Mayar Sherif to reach her second tour-level final in which she beat Jasmine Paolini to win her first WTA Tour title.

As the 23rd seed, Zheng defeated Nadia Podoroska and Kaia Kanepi to reach the third round of the US Open, before beating Lucia Bronzetti in a three-set thriller to enter her second major fourth round. She upset fifth seed and defending finalist, Ons Jabeur, to advance to her maiden major quarterfinal, losing there to world No. 2 and eventual finalist, Aryna Sabalenka.

Fissette left Zheng after the US Open to rejoin Osaka who planned to return to the tour after giving birth. Zheng won gold in singles at the Asian Games in September 2023.

She captured her second WTA Tour title on home soil at the WTA 500 Zhengzhou Open defeating Barbora Krejčíková. Following the 2023 WTA Elite Trophy where she defeated compatriot Zhu Lin in the semifinals, she entered the top 15 in the rankings. She rehired Pere Riba in the off-season at the end of 2023.

At the end of the season, Zheng was named Most Improved Player by the WTA.

2024: United Cup debut, Australian Open finalist, top 10
She made her debut at the United Cup as China's No. 1 player, part of the team's debut at the tournament, and recorded her first win to clinch the tie with Czechia. Team China qualified for the quarterfinals but was defeated by eventual finalist, team Poland.

At the 2024 Australian Open, Zheng reached her first Grand Slam final defeating Ashlyn Krueger, Katie Boulter, compatriot Wang Yafan, and Océane Dodin in a 59-minute match. Zheng then defeated Anna Kalinskaya in the quarterfinals, and qualifier and first-time semifinalist Dayana Yastremska in the semifinals. She became the fourth Chinese player to reach the semifinals of a major, after Zheng Jie, Li Na and Peng Shuai, the second finalist since Li Na in 2014, and the second woman in the Open era to reach Australian Open final by defeating six unseeded opponents after Sánchez Vicario in 1995. As a result, she reached the top 10 in the singles rankings, the second Chinese player to do so after Li Na.

Grand Slam tournament performance timelines
Current through the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.