Zheng Jie now seems to be the emerging star of tennis world as the Chinese women’s singles player reached the semi final of Wimbledon 2008. She impressed the tennis world with her third round victory over top seed Ana Ivanovic, who won the French Open title last month. Then in the fourth round, she outclassed world no. 15 Agnes Szavay from Hungary and in the quarter final she won over Czech Republic’s Nicole Vaidisiva, current world no. 18 in WTA ranking.
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Zheng Jie will face former world no. 1 Serena Williams in the semi final. For a wildcard entry, it is definitely something more than special and Zheng Jie has turned into a big star of world tennis overnight with her excellent performance in the tournament. She has already proven her skill and talent in doubles. Now, with her top class performance in Wimbledon 2008, Zheng Jie seems to be going to prove her talent and skill in grand slam singles tennis as well.
So, it is natural that tennis fans are now excited with the arrival of another would be star Zheng Jie. It is for sure that Zheng Jie has already made many fans across the world, other than Chinese fans. Naturally, many of the fans are now interested to know about Zheng Jie. That is why; I have made a list of 20 things that you might want to know about this Chinese tennis star. The 20 things about Zheng Jie are as follows:
- Zheng Jie is the first tennis player from China to reach a Grand Slam singles semi final in Wimbledon 2008.
- On her way to the semi final of Wimbledon 2008, she defeated world no. 1 and tournament’s top seed Ana Ivanovic in the third round. She also defeated two top 20 ranked players in her way to the semi final. They are 15th ranked Agnes Szavay of
- Getting a wildcard entry in Wimbledon 2008, she stunned the tennis world by reaching semi final of the tournament. She came into the tournament with world ranking of 133.
- She was born in Chengdu of Sichuan province on 5 July 1983.
- Physically she is 1.64 m (5 ft 4
1⁄2 inches) tall and weighs 126 lbs. (57 kg). - Zheng Jie is a right handed player
- Her current doubles ranking is 22
- She debuted in WTA rankings in 2000.
- Zheng Jie started playing professional tennis from 16 January 2003 and successfully ended the year in the top 100 of singles ranking.
- The 24-year old Chinese tennis star is mostly known for her doubles success. Till date, Zheng Jie won two Grand Slam women’s doubles titles: Australian Open 2006 and Wimbledon 2006. In the same year, she was ranked 3rd in doubles, her best ever in women’s doubles.
- In both of her grand slam doubles success, fellow Chinese Yan Zi was her partner.
- She won 11 WTA doubles titles in her career in total till date.
- Though she could not yet win any grand slam singles title so far in her career, Zheng Jie has three WTA singles titles to her credit. These are: Hobart 2005, Estoril 2006 and Nordea Nordic Light 2006.
- Her best performance in French Open came in 2004 when she made it to the fourth round. However, her success in U.S. Open and Australian Open are not satisfactory at all as she could never go beyond second round of U.S. Open and first round of Australian Open.
- Reaching 27th in WTA singles ranking has been her best ever ranking which came in 2006.
- She has earned $1,815,339 as prize money in her career until now.
- She tried her luck at Grand Slam arena for the first time in U.S. Open 2002, but failed to get into the final competition as she was ruled out of qualifying round.
- The following year, Zheng Jie had three unsuccessful attempts in grand slam tournaments, but she could not play in a final competition of a grand slam tournament until Australian 2004. In her debut grand slam tournament, she got out from the first round. However, in doubles, she reached the quarter final of her first grand slam tournament, Australian Open 2004.
- The win-loss record of Zheng Jie in singles, 223–128, is not something impressive, while her doubles record, 249–98 is quite satisfactory.
- She is the gold medalists of singles and doubles events of tennis in 2006 Doha Asian Games.
- Zheng Jie will represent
There is no doubt, Zheng Jie has improved a lot over the years and is waiting for something bigger. No matter, whether she could win the title of Wimbledon 2008 or not, the sort of performance she showed so far in Wimbledon 2008, it is enough for the indication of a bright future of Zheng Jie. She is 24 now and I think, if she can continue improving her tennis skill and hold on there, it is very possible to have some excellent years ahead of her in career. I hope, she will be able to continue her progress both in singles and doubles events in the years to come.
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