Zheng Jie

Zheng Jie (born 5 July 1983) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. In May 2009, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 15.

Zheng is one of China's most successful tennis players. She won four singles titles on the WTA Tour – Hobart in 2005, Estoril, Stockholm in 2006, and Auckland in 2012. She also won 15 career doubles titles, eleven of them with Yan Zi, including Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2006. She won the bronze medal in doubles with Yan Zi at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Her career-high doubles ranking is world No. 3. Zheng reached the singles semifinals at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, where she defeated world No. 1, Ana Ivanovic, in the third round, and later went on to become the first Chinese player to advance to the semifinals at a major tournament. She also reached the semifinals of the 2010 Australian Open.

Personal life Zheng graduated from the Sichuan Sports Academy in June 2000.

At Wimbledon in 2008, she gained recognition when she became the first Chinese player ever to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles tournament, defeating then-world No. 1, Ana Ivanovic, en route. She donated her winnings to the victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in her native province.

Zheng was coached by Jiang Hong Wei, China's national women's team head coach, but she was later coached by her husband Zhang Yu who was also her hitting partner. They became close during the period after her severe ankle injury. Zheng is on the advisory staff of Yonex and uses their rackets. She was wearing clothing by Anta and appeared in their advertising campaigns, and she is a Rolex testimonee together with Roger Federer and Ana Ivanovic.

Zheng started playing tennis when she was ten, after she had seen her older sister play and thought tennis would be good exercise.

Nearly a year after the Sichuan earthquake that shook her home province, she visited there and brought with her tennis balls and rackets to distribute to the children there.

Zheng keeps in a small vial pieces of her ankle bone that were removed during the ankle surgery of 2007. She says, she keeps it because it is a part of her, and that it makes her cherish being able to play tennis again and life in general. She says that although it made her world ranking plunge, it also made her grow up a lot.

In 2009, Zheng separated from the Chinese Tennis Association (CTA). She talked about how it protected her in times of injury and when she was not playing well, for the CTA would back her completely and give her medical support. Now she manages her own money, which puts her at risk but also means that successes will be more profitable.

In April 2016, Zheng announced on social media that she had given birth to her first child.

Career overview 2002 In May 2002, she won two successive $25k singles tournaments, at Shanghai and Tianjin, right after reaching her first $50k tournament quarterfinal, at Fukuoka, Japan. That September, she gained direct entry into a WTA Tour event in Shanghai and reached round two, before losing to Anna Kournikova.

2003 In 2003, she qualified for Hyderabad and took a love set against Mary Pierce in the main-draw first round, only to lose the match in three sets. She also qualified for Doha, but then lost to Lina Krasnoroutskaya.

Later in the year, she defeated Nuria Llagostera Vives in the first round of a $25k tournament, Alona Bondarenko in the first round of qualifying for Palermo, and Maria Elena Camerin at another $50k event in July, where she reached the quarterfinal; but it was in August at the Bronx that she won her first $50k title, beating Shenay Perry, Jamea Jackson, Akiko Morigami, Adriana Serra Zanetti and (in the final) Maria Kirilenko to this end. and the second round at Miami and Vienna (where she beat Lisa Raymond).

She qualified for Dubai with wins over Sandra Kleinová, Maria Elena Camerin and Virginia Ruano Pascual, and went on to defeat Anabel Medina Garrigues in the main draw, before succumbing to Lindsay Davenport.

Zheng's newfound confidence earned a title at her next tournament in Estoril, where she defeated top-seeded Flavia Pennetta en route to the final In doubles, her title defense with Yan Zi ended in the semifinals with a defeat by Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung – the same partnership which they managed to defeat in the final of the Doha Asian Games just one month previously.

Zheng competed in both the singles and doubles (with Yan Zi) of the French Open. At the beginning of the tournament, she sustained an ankle injury, hampering her performance. She was knocked out in the first round of the singles competition by Timea Bacsinszky, and also lost in the first round in the doubles portion. In doubles, she and Yan Zi reached the final, only to lose to the third seeds, Safina and Szávay. However, in Sydney, the duo won the title, beating second seeds Sugiyama and Srebotnik and reigning US Open champions Dechy and Safina along the way. At the Australian Open, the duo made it to the seminfinals, beating the Williams sisters along the way, before losing to the 12th seeds Peer and Azarenka.

Zheng qualified for the main draw of the French Open and then reached the third round, before losing to Dinara Safina. Zheng then beat Ágnes Szávay of Hungary, the 15th seed, in the fourth round, and 18th-seeded Nicole Vaidišová in the quarterfinals. This made Zheng the first female Chinese tennis player ever to reach the singles semifinals of a major tournament. She also became the first wildcard to reach the semifinals of the women's singles at Wimbledon. In the semifinals, Zheng lost to two-time Wimbledon champion and former world No. 1, Serena Williams. Zheng's strong Wimbledon performance elevated her ranking to No. 40.

She donated her prize money from the tournament and spent time helping the victims and post-reconstruction effort of the 12 May earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people and left five to ten million homeless in her home province Sichuan. She did the same with her French Open prize money earlier in the year.

In August 2008, Zheng competed for China in both singles and doubles at the Beijing Olympics. In the singles portion, Zheng made it to the third round, before losing to sixth-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia, who eventually won the silver medal. Zheng had better results in doubles with her partner Yan Zi. Seeded eighth, they won the bronze medal match against the Ukrainian sisters team of Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko, after losing in the semifinals to the fourth-seeded Spanish team of Medina Garrigues and Ruano Pascual. This was the second Olympic tennis medal ever won by China.

After the Olympics, Zheng entered the US Open. She advanced to the third round, losing there a tight match to second-seeded Jelena Janković.

She then was seeded third in the Tier III Guangzhou International held in September and made it to the semifinals, before losing to top-seeded Vera Zvonareva.

Ranked world No. 30, Zheng returned in September to Beijing for the China Open Tier-II tournament. She advanced to the semifinals, before losing to world No. 7 and fourth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova. Based on her strong China Open performance, Zheng became Asia's highest ranked women's singles player at world No. 26, her highest to-date career WTA singles ranking.

She was scheduled to play at the Hobart International but withdrew due to a right thigh injury. At the Australian Open, Zheng reached the fourth round, where she was beaten by Sara Errani, with straight sets wins over Madison Keys, Roberta Vinci and top-10 ranked Marion Bartoli.

She had a disappointing run of results following the Australian Open, failing to win a match until the Indian Wells Open where she handily defeated Michaëlla Krajicek having received a first-round bye. In the third round, Zheng lost to Li Na, 1–6, 3–6. Zheng then reached the third round at the Miami Open, beating Hradecká and Angelique Kerber in straight sets, before losing to Dominika Cibulková, 2–6, 0–6.

The clay-court season she began as the fifth seed in Estoril. In the first round, she defeated Ekaterina Makarova 6–3, 6–1, but lost in the second to Galina Voskoboeva. Zheng then lost in the first round of Madrid, Rome and Brussels to Maria Kirilenko, Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Rus, respectively. At the French Open, Zheng was seeded 31st, and lost in the second round to Aleksandra Wozniak.

She chose to begin the grass-court season in Birmingham, however as she registered late she was forced to qualify for the main draw, which she did by beating both Natalie Grandin and Sandra Zaniewska. Zheng won three matches to reach the quarter-finals, where she defeated fourth-seeded Roberta Vinci in a three set match hampered by multiple rain delays. In the semifinals Zheng lost to Jelena Janković in three sets.

At Wimbledon, Zheng entered both ladies' singles (seeded 25th) and ladies' doubles, partnering with compatriot Peng Shuai (unseeded). In the first round singles, she defeated unseeded Canadian Stéphanie Dubois. In round two, Zheng avenged her French Open defeat by Wozniak, another unseeded Canadian, in straight sets. In the third round, Zheng lost 7–6, 2–6, 7–9 to Serena Williams who hit a Wimbledon record of 23 aces. In the first-round doubles, Zheng and Peng lost to Marina Erakovic and Tamarine Tanasugarn, 2–6, 2–6.

At the US Open, Zheng lost in the third round to world No. 1, Victoria Azarenka, 0–6, 1–6. In doubles, Zheng decided to partner with Katarina Srebotnik, however, they lost in the first round.

Following the US Open, Zheng competed in the Asian Swing. Zheng was the second seed in Guangzhou, but lost in the second round to Laura Robson. In Tokyo, Zheng was crushed by Dominika Cibulková 6–0, 6–3 in the second round, while in Beijing Zheng was upset in the first round by Lara Arruabarrena Vecino. Seeded second in Osaka, she lost to Pauline Parmentier in the second round.

Zheng qualified for the Tournament of Champions as a result of the withdrawal of Venus Williams. In the round-robin section of the tournament, Zheng was grouped with Nadia Petrova, Maria Kirilenko and Tsvetana Pironkova. Zheng lost her matches to Petrova and Pironkova, and retired while down in the first set against Sofia Arvidsson, Kirilenko's replacement. Zheng ended the year ranked No. 26.

2013 Her year began in Auckland in a bid to defend her title at Auckland. Despite being seeded fourth, Zheng lost in the first round in straight sets to Jamie Hampton. Zheng rebounded in Sydney by defeating sixth-seeded Sam Stosur in three sets. In the second round, she lost to Madison Keys, a qualifier ranked 135, 0–6, 4–6. At the Australian Open, Zheng reached the third round after another win over Stosur, but she then lost in three sets to Germany's Julia Görges.

Following the Australian Open, Zheng struggled with poor results, losing early in Doha, Indian Wells and Miami, resulting in her falling from the top 50. Zheng began the clay-court season with early losses in Madrid and Rome, to Svetlana Kuznetsova and Li Na respectively. Zheng's fortunes changed at the Brussels Open, where she defeated Caroline Wozniacki before losing in the quarterfinals to Romina Oprandi. At the French Open, Zheng reached the third round for the first time since 2008, but lost to Maria Sharapova in straight sets.

Zheng did not play any warm-up events during the grass-court season, instead electing to play her first match on the surface at Wimbledon, where she lost in the first round to Caroline Garcia. This was Zheng's first loss in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament since 2007.

At the US Open, in the second round, Zheng played in what would become one of the longest US Open women's matches in history lasting more than three hours. She wore down Venus Williams with powerful returns and impressive endurance, eventually winning a third-set tiebreaker to take the match, but she then lost to Carla Suárez Navarro in the third round.

2014

Zheng started the year by losing early in Shenzhen and Hobart. However, she reached the third round at the Australian Open, defeating 12th-seeded Roberta Vinci and Madison Keys before losing to Casey Dellacqua. This was then followed by a string of poor results, culminating in a first-round loss to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova at the French Open.

Zheng's fortunes improved during the grass-court season. Despite losing in the first round at Birmingham, Zheng then reached of the final of the Rosmalen Open where she was defeated by CoCo Vandeweghe. Zheng defeated Annika Beck in the first round of the Wimbledon Championships but was then beaten by 11th seed Ana Ivanovic.

She played just five tournaments after Wimbledon, highlighted by a first-round loss to Peng Shuai at the US Open and a quarterfinal run in Hong Kong.

2015: Australian Open doubles final and retirement Zheng played just one singles match in 2015, a first-round loss at the Australian Open to Chang Kai-chen. However, at the same tournament, she and her partner Chan Yung-jan reached the finals of the women's doubles event, where they were defeated by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Šafářová in straight sets. Zheng played six further doubles events in 2015, losing in the third round of the French Open, the final at Eastbourne and the first round at Wimbledon.

Zheng has not participated in any professional tennis matches since the 2015 Wimbledon Championships and, as a result, no longer holds a WTA ranking in singles or doubles.

Career statistics

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Mixed doubles

Grand Slam tournament finals Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

Other significant finals Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 tournaments Doubles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Olympic medal matches Doubles: 1 (bronze medal)