Yuan Meng

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yuan.
Yuan Meng
Country China
Residence Hong Kong, China
Date of birth May 9, 1986
Place of birth Hu Nan, China
Height 5' 6.25in (1.68m)
Weight 139 lbs. (63 kg)
Turned pro 2003
Plays Right
(two-handed backhand)
Career prize money $234,886
Singles
Career record: 165-110
Career titles: 0 (4 ITF titles)
Highest ranking: No. 86 (March 10, 2008)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open 2nd Round (2006, 2008)
French Open 1st Round (2006, 2008)
Wimbledon 1st Round (2006)
US Open 1st Round (2006)
Doubles
Career record: 30-41
Career titles: 0 (1 ITF title)
Highest ranking: No. 181 (August 28, 2006)

Infobox last updated on: October 23, 2007.

Yuan Meng (born May 9, 1986) is a professional tennis player from the People's Republic of China. By early March 2006, she had won two ITF singles titles and one ITF doubles title, and stood on the threshold of the World's Top 100-ranked women's tennis players, at #111.

Contents

[edit] Career

Yuan began competing on the ITF circuit at the age of fifteen in May 2001, but that year lost in the first round of qualifying in all four events she entered, and ended the year still unranked.

[edit] 2002

In 2002, she won seven matches in qualifying and one in a main draw, and finished the year ranked 984th.

[edit] 2003

In 2003, she won eleven matches in qualifying and five in main draws, and after reaching the final qualifying round for a $50,000 event at Shenzhen she finished the year world-ranked nearly 300 places higher, at 689th.

[edit] 2004

In March 2004, she reached the final of a $10,000 grass-court event at Yarrawonga, Australia, only to default to her last opponent. In early June, shortly after her eighteenth birthday, she reached the semi-final of a $25,000 event at Wulanhaote, before losing to more experienced countrywoman Liu Nan-Nan. In December, she reached her first $25,000 tournament final at Port Pirie, before losing a tight three-set championship decider to a little-known Australian. Overall, she had won thirty-two matches in the year, lifting her world ranking to 387, up another 300 places year-on-year.

[edit] 2005

Yuan's consistent upward progress through the rankings continued in 2005. In February, she reached the semi-final of a $50,000 hard-court tournament at Bendigo, Australia. In March, she finally won her first career ITF singles title at the $10,000 grass-court event in Benalla, also in Australia. She performed solidly in several successive $25,000 tournaments over the Spring, reaching the semi-final at Campobasso, Italy in May with an impressive win over emerging Slovak star Jarmila Gajdosova (before losing to Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine in three sets), and defeating Gajdosova in three once more, as well as the equally promising youngster Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, and the experienced Australian Christina Wheeler, in reaching the final at Grado in June. In August, she nearly qualified for the $50,000 Bronx tournament after a fine three-set victory over Tatiana Poutchek, but lost in the deciding set in an extremely close qualifying-round match against German Angelika Bachmann.

In September, Yuan won her second career singles title and first $50,000 title at Beijing, defeating the highly competent Top-150 player Vilmarie Castellvi 4–6 6–4 6–4 in the final. Then she finally qualified for her first WTA event at Guangzhou, but lost in the first round to Arantxa Parra-Santonja of Spain. In October, as a direct entrant to the WTA tournament at Bangkok, she impressed in defeating Aiko Nakamura and Sania Mirza (though the popular Indian starlet retired after losing the first set to Yuan), to win her first ever main-draw matches at a WTA event in reaching the quarter-final, where she took Gisela Dulko to three sets. Two further semi-final performances at $25,000 ITF contests rounded off the Chinese teenager's best year to date, which saw her ascend another 234 places in the world rankings to 153rd, well within contention for qualifying for more WTA tournaments in the new year.

[edit] 2006

2006 began well with the much-improved Chinese rising star qualifying for Gold Coast with wins over Cara Black, Kaia Kanepi (again) and Casey Dell'Acqua. But Top 20 player Francesca Schiavone was a challenge too far in the main draw first round, defeating Yuan for the loss of just five games. Not one for being easily discouraged, she proceeded to come through qualifying for her fourth WTA Tour main draw and her first at Grand Slam level, the Australian Open, with straight-sets wins over Yulia Beygelzimer of Ukraine, Elena Baltacha of Great Britain and Bethanie Mattek of the United States. In the main draw, she defeated Melinda Czink 6–4 6–2, then faced the World No. 2 Kim Clijsters, and took six games from her; but the result in the Belgian's favour was virtually a foregone conclusion. Still, these performances had lifted her dramatically to 108th in the world in just one month.

After a couple of disappointing qualifying losses in early February, to Vania King at Tokyo and Akgul Amanmuradova at Pattaya, Yuan next broke through in Memphis, defeating Christina Wheeler once more to gain the main draw, where she battled past talented Uzbekistan player Varvara Lepchenko in three sets before succumbing to the solid American Jill Craybas in Round Two. This performance was enough to restore her to a level-best World No. 108 as February came to a close.

Then at Indian Wells in March, she came through qualifying with impressive wins over Angela Haynes and (in three sets) Varvara Lepchenko, then advanced to Round Three of the main draw with straight-sets wins over Akiko Morigami and Catalina Castano. Even if she does not win her third-round tie, the estimated 39 ranking points accrued from her performance so far will give her a very strong chance of edging just inside the World Top 100 for the first time in her career in the week following the tournament.

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