Rapidly Moving Up In The Rankings, Young Zheng Qinwen Is Now On Your Radar
FCI Staff Writer Sacramento 
fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com fcielitecompetitor.com Shutterstock-lev-radin-photo-Editorial-use
November 25, 2023,
Someone is making a big move and if you are a female tennis fan, you should take notice.
She is ranked number 15 in the entire world and yet we have the strong sense, that outside of the super fans, few have heard of her.
Zheng Qinwen is her name. Or is it Qinwen Zheng?
When researching her body of work, it is truly hard to tell since many publications use the names interchangeably.
The informative official tennis site of the Australian Open, ausopen.com educates, “At the US Open, she was asked how she preferred to be addressed; the Chinese convention is for a person’s surname to precede their given name.”
Okay, we understand.
Kind of.
The given name is your first name.
The surname is your last name.
So, technically, as we see it in the West, her first name is Qinwen and her last name is Zheng.
But, it is okay with her, if you use her last name, first.
Okay, Fine.
No matter, her first or last name?
Winning profusely is her game. As of this November 8, 2023, writing, she has won 172 singles matches.
Did you know that?
How much do you know about her? Could you write, say, four sentences about her?
Don’t feel alone if you can’t.
We are going to remedy that here and give Zheng a little of the direct attention she deserved.
She first came to our attention at the 2023 US Open when elite player Ons Jabeur was injured and playing poorly. We thought, given the pre-US Open clippings, she might have a premature exit.
Zheng made sure of it.
At usopen.org they posted on September 4, 2023, “A day after defending champion Iga Swiatek made an early exit from Flushing Meadows, 20-year-old Zheng Qinwen pummeled the ball with authority to defeat No. 5 seed and 2022 runner-up Ons Jabeur, 6-2, 6-4, and reach the US Open quarterfinals for the first time in her career.”
Standing ovation to that.
From the beginning of the match, the world’s biggest stage did not seem to intimidate Zheng, who stayed aggressive, directing the action with her hard, flat shots and breaking Ons in the third game.
So, she is only twenty years old. Amazing.
Time for a closer look.
Zheng is a Chinese professional tennis player who reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 15 by the WTA, on November 6, 2023, no doubt, nice residual from her great 2023 US Open run.
Zheng has won two WTA, one WTA Challenger and eight ITF singles titles, and was named the 2022 WTA Newcomer of the Year.
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.
The WTA adds, Zheng was ranked No.630 when she won back-to-back ITF titles in August and September of 2020. By the end of 2021 she had risen to No.126, having won three ITF titles.
Fantastic.
She soon began to really make a move.
In 2022, at the Melbourne Summer Set 1, she reached her first WTA Tour semifinal after beating Mai Hontama, former No. 2 Vera Zvonareva, and Ana Konjuh, respectively.
In 2023, she captured her second WTA title on home-soil at the WTA 500 2023 Zhengzhou Open defeating Barbora Krejcikova.
She reached the finals at the 2023 WTA Elite Trophy where she defeated compatriot Lin Zhu in the semifinals.
It takes a village to raise a young super star so let’s visit Zheng’s foundation.
Very important, her inspiration was previous tennis star Li Na.
Li Na is a Chinese former professional tennis player.
She achieved a career-high WTA ranking of world No. 2 on February 17, 2014.
Over the course of her career, Li won nine WTA Tour singles titles including two Grand Slam singles titles at the 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open. Those victories made her the first Grand Slam singles champion from Asia, male or female.
She also became the first player representing an Asian country to appear in a Grand Slam singles final.
All before the great Naomi Osaka’s time.
We can see why Zheng found her so inspirational.
We remember Li well. Research indicates she retired at the end of 2014, going out on top. How time passes so quickly.
Our luminary is coached by Pere Riba Madrid and trains in Barcelona. She credits her improvement over the last year to footwork and tactics.
In terms of her hometown, Zheng is from Shiyan.
Shiyan is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hubei, China, bordering Henan to the northeast, Chongqing to the southwest, and Shaanxi to the north and west.
At the 2020 census, its population was 3,209,004.
In 2007, the city was named China’s top ten livable cities by Chinese Cities Brand Value Report, which was released at 2007 Beijing Summit of China Cities Forum.
The team at trip.com adds some color, “Located in the northwestern part of Hubei Province, Shiyan City is the core city of the Western Hubei ecological and cultural tourism circle. As a national garden city and one of China’s excellent tourist cities, Shiyan has beautiful mountains and pretty waters, with very charming scenery.”
Sounds wonderful.
From a globally desirable city, Zheng is being greatly appreciated by sponsors including Wilson racquets.
She is also sponsored by Ant Group.
Who are they?
Ant Group is an affiliate company of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group.
The group owns the world’s largest mobile (digital) payment platform Alipay, which serves over 1.3 billion users and 80 million merchants, with total payment volume (TPV) reaching CN¥118 trillion in June 2020.
Are you ready for this?
It is the second largest financial services corporation in the world, behind Visa.
Didn’t know that. We are greatly impressed.
It is as though, everything Zheng touches, is turning to gold.
Next up is the mighty 2024 Australian Open.
She won’t catch anyone by surprise there. At number 15 in the world, Zheng is clearly on the radar.
Now that she is becoming well known, especially on the courts, she is absolutely someone to watch and be amazed by.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO Shutterstock-lev-radin-photo-Editorial-use fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com fcielitecompetitor.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_Qinwen
https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2441514/five-things-to-know-about-zheng-qinwen
https://ausopen.com/articles/news/female-new-wave-zheng-qinwen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Na
https://www.trip.com/travel-guide/destination/shiyan-464/
https://tennisfansite.com/qinwen-zheng-sponsors-brands-ambassador-earnings/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_Group
https://www.fciwomenswrestling2.com
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
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