Zheng Jie
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| Country |  China |
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| Residence | Chengdu, Sichuan, China | |
| Date of birth | July 5, 1983 | |
| Place of birth | Chengdu, Sichuan, China | |
| Height | 5' 4/5in (1.64 m) | |
| Weight | 126 lbs. (57 kg) | |
| Turned Pro | January 16, 2003 | |
| Plays | Right; Two-handed backhand | |
| Career Prize Money | $1,470,953 | |
| Singles | ||
| Career record: | 208-116 | |
| Career titles: | 3 (4 ITF titles) | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 27 (August 14, 2006) | |
| Grand Slam results | ||
| Australian Open | 1st (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007) | |
| French Open | 4th (2004) | |
| Wimbledon | 3rd (2006) | |
| U.S. Open | 2nd (2005) | |
| Doubles | ||
| Career record: | 219-88 | |
| Career titles: | 8 (16 ITF titles) | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 3 (July 10, 2006) | |
- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Zheng.
Zheng Jie (郑洁) (born July 5, 1983) is a Chinese professional female tennis player. She was born in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. She made her WTA rankings debut in 2000. She turned professional in 2003 and ended the year for the first time in the top 100.
Currently, Zheng is the highest ranked Chinese Women's Doubles players at the rank of 3. Zheng has won three career WTA singles titles: Hobart 2005, Estoril 2006 and Nordea Nordic Light 2006. In addition, she has won seven WTA doubles titles, all with Yan Zi: Hobart and Hyderabad (both 2005), as well as the Australian Open, Berlin, Rabat, 's-Hertogenbosch, Wimbledon and New Hevan (all 2006).
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[edit] 2002
In May 2002, she won two successive $25,000 ITF singles tournaments, at Shanghai and Tianjin, right after reaching her first $50,000 tournament quarterfinal, at Fukuoka, Japan. That September, she gained direct entry into a WTA tournament at Shanghai, and reached Round Two before losing to Anna Kournikova. She ended the year as World No. 183.
[edit] 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. 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 $25,000 ITF tournament, Alyona Bondarenko in the first round of qualifying for Palermo, and Maria-Elena Camerin at another $50,000 ITF event in July, where she reached the quarter-final; but it was in August at Bronx that she won her first $50,000 tournament, beating a cast of future stars in the forms of Shenay Perry, Jamea Jackson, Akiko Morigami, Adriana Serra Zanetti and (in the final) Maria Kirilenko to this end. Although Kirilenko avenged this defeat in qualifying at the U.S. Open, Zheng proceeded to qualify for Bali in September with crushing victories over Yan Zi and Yuka Yoshida, then vanquished Flavia Pennetta 6-3 6-2 in the first round of the main draw before bowing out to Tamarine Tanasugarn. However, the very next month she defeated Tanasugarn at the Japan Open, where she reached her first WTA semi-final before losing to Maria Sharapova. At the end of October, she reached another WTA quarter-final at Quebec City with a second-round win over Antonella Serra Zanetti before losing in three sets to Laura Granville. In December, she was a losing finalist at two successive $50,000 tournaments, falling in three sets to countrywoman Peng Shuai at Changsha (after victories over Sesil Karatantcheva, Camille Pin and Aiko Nakamura) and, also in three sets, to the same Sesil Karatantcheva (after beating Sun Tiantian in the semi-final) at Shenzhen. These impressive results catapulted Zheng into the World Top 100, bringing her a year-end ranking of 93.
[edit] 2004
2004 brought some further improvements in her singles results. She reached the quarter-finals at Hyderabad and Doha (where she comfortably beat Jelena Dokic in Round Two), and the second round at Miami and Vienna (where she beat Lisa Raymond 6-3 6-2). Then at the French Open, playing only her second Grand Slam singles main draw (after gaining direct entry to the Australian Open but losing in the first round), she defeated Dally Randriantefy, Emilie Loit and Tathiana Garbin in succession to reach the fourth round, where she lost to Paola Suarez in two close sets, 4-6 5-7. At the Olympics in Athens, she lost 6-8 in the final set of her first round match to Ai Sugiyama despite taking the first set 6-4. In September, she won a $25,000 ITF tournament at Beijing, defeating Yan Zi in the semi-final and Li Na in the final. But it was another of her countrywomen, Peng Shuai, who stopped her at the final hurdle in a $50,000 tournament at Shenzhen late that November, although she had impressively conquered Yan Zi again in the semi-final, the latter having accounted for Li Na in the quarter-final stage. Zheng ended the year world-ranked 67.
[edit] 2005
In 2005, she began the year with a flourish by capturing her first WTA singles title at Hobart, after wins over some highly capable players, namely Mariana Diaz-Oliva, Shinobu Asagoe, Klara Koukalova, Na Li and Gisela Dulko. She qualified for Dubai with wins over Sandra Kleinova, Maria-Elena Camerin and Virginia Ruano-Pascual, and went on to defeat Anabel Medina Garrigues in the main draw before succumbing to Lindsay Davenport. Dulko gained her revenge in the quarter-final at Estoril in April. But Zheng remained in fine form, and reached the her second WTA final at Rabat, Morocco in May, losing to Nuria Llagostera Vives after wins over Catalina Castano, Maureen Drake and Tathiana Garbin, followed by a walk-over against Na Li who had to retire at 3-3 from an ankle sprain. A three-set loss to Francesca Schiavone in the first round of the French Open prevented Zheng from defending her ranking points accrued there the previous year. But she recovered to record several more impressive results in August, reaching the second round at Los Angeles by again beating Shinobu Asagoe, the Canadian Open quarter-final (with wins over Maria-Emilia Salerni and Ai Sugiyama), and another quarter-final at New Haven (after defeating Katarina Srebotnik and Emilie Loit in qualifying, and Jamea Jackson in the main draw, though she was assisted by entering the tournament with a first-round bye and as a lucky loser in the final-round of qualifying to Jelena Kostanic). At the end of the month, she advanced to the second round at the U.S. Open by defeating Iveta Benesova. Further impressive first-round wins in September over Maria Vento-Kabchi (at Bali) and Jelena Janković (at Beijing) could not be consolidated on in subsequent rounds of the respective tournaments; but at Guangzhou, the last tournament she would play all year, she reached the semi-final with wins over Carly Gullickson, Jamea Jackson and Maria Kirilenko, before suffering her second loss of the year to Nuria Llagostera Vives. This string of results lifted her to a career-high world ranking of 42 in early October 2005.
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[edit] 2006
2006 started poorly for Zheng in singles, with a string of six successive first-round losses dipping her world ranking to 56 by the end of February. However, after a first round loss in Indian Wells, her 2006 singles breakthrough came at Miami where she reached the quarter-finals with wins over Nathalie Dechy and Anna-Lena Groenefeld before falling to Tatiana Golovin in three sets, 6-3 3-6 2-6. Zheng's new found confidence earned a title at her next tournament in Estoril, where she defeated number one seed Flavia Pennetta en route to the final before a victory over compatriot Na Li whom was forced to retire at one set a piece. Successful results continued in Berlin, where only an in-form Nadia Petrova stopped her from reaching the quarter finals. The Russian 2nd seed took the match 7-6 4-6 6-4. In Strasbourg, Zheng displayed yet more fine form to reach the quarter finals, where she put up a spirited challenge against the 2nd seed Czech Nicole Vaidisova, who eventually prevailed 6-4 4-6 6-2. In August, the Chinesewoman blasted throught the Stockholm draw, clinching her second title of the season without dropping a set. In the final, she defeated the top seed and former world number two Anastasia Myskina 6-4 6-1. The win over Myskina avenged Zheng's tough three set loss to the Russian at the start of the season. Another impressive appearance was recorded in Montreal where she fell to eventual champion, Ana Ivanović. Despite Ivanović being in very good shape, took three sets to win her second round match against Zheng with the final score being 6-4 6-7 6-2. A knee injury hampered Zheng's singles progess towards the end of 2006. Her US Open ended in a disappointing 2nd round defeat to Anastassia Rodionova and her last competitive match of the season saw her worst loss in terms of rankings, where she fell in the second round of Zurich qualifying to then 139th ranked Joanna Sacowicz of Poland.
However, in December, Zheng took part in the Asian Games in Doha. After a surprising first round loss in the team event, she went into the singles competition as the second seed. Recording victories over Shikha Uberoi, Yung Jan Chan, Aiko Nakamura and a resurgent Sania Mirza (6-4 1-6 6-1), she claimed the gold medal. She also took gold in doubles with partner Yan Zi, winning 6-1 7-6 against Yung Jan Chan and Chia Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei. To end 2006 on an additional high, Zheng won the Chinese National Championships, with a three set victory over her doubles partner in the final.
[edit] Australian Open 2006
But meanwhile, in January, Zheng and her partner Yan Zi won the Women's Doubles Title at the Australian Open and became the first Chinese tennis players - male or female - to reach a final of a Grand Slam tournament, as well as win it. The route to the final was:
- First round: def. Linetskaya/Voskoboeva 6-1 6-0
- Second round: def. Dominguez Lino/Sanchez Lorenzo 6-4 6-0
- Third round: def. (7) Dementieva/Pennetta 6-1 6-2
- Quarterfinals: def. (4) Ruano Pascual/Suarez 4-6 7-5 6-1 (Saved three match points)
- Semifinals: def. (9) Asagoe/Srebotnik 6-2 7-6 (2)
- In the final, they defeated Lisa Raymond (USA) / Samantha Stosur (AUS) 2-6 7-6(7) 6-3, saving two Championship Points in the second set tiebreak, and needing only a single Championship Point of their own to claim the Title.
[edit] Wimbledon 2006
At Wimbledon, Zheng and Max Mirnyi, seeded two reached the Semi Finals of the Mixed Doubles, where they were beaten by Bob Bryan and Venus Williams (who were unseeded), 7-5, 7-5. She triumphed in women's doubles with Yan Zi over Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez 6-3 3-6 6-2, capturing China's first Wimbledon title. With her win, she became the first Chinese tennis player to amass over 1 million dollars in career earnings.
[edit] 2007
2007 started well for Zheng, where she reached a second Hobart quarter final, recording solid victories over qualifier Stephanie Foretz and Severine Bremond of France. After taking the first set against rising Russian Anna Chakvetadze, Zheng only managed another two games with the match ending 4-6 6-1 6-1. Chakvetadze would then go on to win the tournament. At the Australian Open, Zheng put in an extremely disappointing performance, losing to then 97th ranked Julia Schruff of Germany 4-6 7-6 6-4 after holding match point on more than one occasion. In doubles, her title defense with Yan Zi began in style, as the pair reeled off two consecutive straight sets wins for the loss of only 3 games. Their third round encounter against Elena Dementieva and Flavia Pennetta proved more difficult, but after squandering the first set they managed to dominate for an eventual 4-6 6-1 6-2 victory. A quarter final match up against a Chinese sister act was won in straight sets, before Jie Zheng and Yan Zi fell in the semi finals to Yung Jan Chan and Chia Jung Chuang of Chines Taipei - the same partnership which they managed to defeat easily in the final of the Doha Asian Games just 1 month previously. In her next event in Tokyo (tier I), Zheng looks good in her first round, winning against qualifier Bethanie Mattek 6-2 6-1. However, in the next round, she suffered a heavy 6-4 6-0 defeat to Serbia's Jelena Janković without earning a single break point. Zheng's next tournament, Indian Wells, took place more than a month after her severe loss to Jankovic. However, the rest time did not seem to serve her well, and after receving a bye in the first round (as the 22nd seed), the Chinesewoman was defeated by Belarussian qualifier Victoria Azarenka 6-3 7-5.
[edit] WTA / ITF titles
- Singles (7)
- WTA (3)
- 2006 : Estoril, Stockholm
- 2005 : Hobart
- ITF (4)
- 2004 : ITF/Beijing 3
- 2003 : ITF/Bronx
- 2002 : ITF/Shanghai, ITF/Tianjin 1
- WTA (3)
- Doubles (9)
- WTA (8)
- 2006 : Australian Open, Berlin Open (Tier I), Rabat, s'Hertogenbosch, Wimbledon, New Haven
- 2005 : Hobart, Hyderabad
- ITF (1)
- 2005 : ITF/Beijing
- WTA (8)
[edit] External links
| Women's Tennis Association | Top ten Asian female tennis players as of April 02, 2007 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. Na Li (China) (18) • 2. Ai Sugiyama (Japan) (26) • 3. Shuai Peng (China) (37) • 4. Jie Zheng (China) (41) • 5. Sania Mirza (India) (46) • 6. Akiko Morigami (Japan) (55) • 7. Aiko Nakamura (Japan) (63) • 8. Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand) (68) • 9. Varvara Lepchenko (Uzbekistan) (89) • 9. Yung-Jan Chan (Chinese Taipei) (93) • 10. Tiantian Sun (China) (97) | ||
| Possible inclusions: Maria Sharapova¹ (Russia) (2) • Shahar Pe'er² (Israel) (15) • Elena Likhovtseva¹ (Russia) (56) • Anna Smashnova² (Israel) (90) ¹ of Asian origin, represents bi-continental Russia ² Israel is considered part of Europe by the ITF |
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