Road to the WTA Finals: Zheng Qinwen secures gold and a spot among the best

Sports can be unpredictable, yet sometimes events unfold just as they should.

Zheng Qinwen was named the 2022 Hologic WTA Tour Newcomer of the Year and the 2023 Most Improved Player. As she entered 2024, high expectations surrounded the rising star from China.

Road to the WTA Finals: Sabalenka | Swiatek | Gauff | Paolini | Rybakina | Pegula | Zheng

Meet the top doubles teams heading to Riyadh

With more eyes on her, Zheng embraced the pressure and flourished, delivering her best season yet. Her resilience has earned her a spot in the WTA Finals, marking a significant milestone in her career.

At only 22 years old, Zheng achieved one milestone after another this past season. The year started with her first Grand Slam final, at the Australian Open -- and yet, even with that huge accomplishment in January, it was the second half of the year where she shot into the stratosphere.

Following her successful title defense at Palermo, Zheng stormed into Roland Garros for the second time this season and emerged as the Olympic gold medalist.

Then in the Asian swing, Zheng found arguably her most consistent form yet to cement her spot in Riyadh. On home soil, she made her first WTA 1000 semifinal in Beijing and her first WTA 1000 final in Wuhan, then claimed the Tokyo title in Japan last week. 

Zheng is the lowest-seeded player in the Purple Group -- but she has accrued the most wins out of any of the Riyadh qualifiers over the past two months, peaking at exactly the right time. If any of her opponents in the field take Zheng lightly, it could be at their peril.

Season snapshot:
2024 tour-level win-loss record: 47-16
2024 titles: 3 (Olympics, Palermo, Tokyo)
Previous WTA Finals appearances: Tournament debut this year

Defining moment: Zheng made the world sit up and take notice at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. In the early rounds, two straight three-hour wins over Emma Navarro (saving a match point) and Angelique Kerber portended something special to come in the medal rounds.

There, it was Zheng's stunning semifinal win over gold-medal favorite Iga Swiatek that reverberated through the sport. Zheng then clinched the gold with a win against Donna Vekic to give China its first Olympic medal of any color in singles.

From the camera roll: What she's been working toward -- Zheng celebrates her gold-medal winning point at the Olympic Games:

Social buzz corner: Zheng made history off the court as well:

Notable stats:

• Since Wimbledon, Zheng has posted a 28-4 win-loss record, including a 12-2 record during the season-capping Asian swing
• Zheng's win over Iga Swiatek in the Olympic semifinals was her first win over a World No.1 in seven tries (all of those meetings were against Swiatek). She also snapped Swiatek's 20-match winning streak on clay with the upset
• Zheng made her Top 10 debut after making her first Grand Slam final at the 2024 Australian Open. She has been ranked at her career-high of World No.7 interrupted since July 15
• She leads the tour this season in percentage of first-serve points won, converting 75.9% of those deliveries
• Zheng is also this year's leader in total aces, with 406

Hot shot(s): Zheng slammed 23 of her aces in her win over Naomi Osaka at Berlin -- the most aces hit by a player in one tour-level match this year. And here they all are:

Memorable quote: "I remember in the [Olympic] quarterfinal, semifinal, my hands were shaking during the match. I mean, after Olympic Games, I never had those feelings anymore. My hand is not shaking during the match, at least." -- Zheng, after making her first career WTA 1000 final in Wuhan