Qinwen Zheng will play in the final of the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh after beating Barbora Krejcikova in the semi-final.
Coming into the year-end championship, the Chinese player has had an incredible season. She reached the Australian Open final, won an Olympic gold medal in Paris, and now, she will play in the final of the WTA Finals.
Her journey in the group stage wasn't easy. She first lost to Aryna Sabalenka before battling Elena Rybakina in three sets and winning. In her last match, she outplayed Jasmine Paolini to secure a semi-final spot.
Krejcikova, too, had to decide about her semi-final spot in her last round-robin match. After losing to Iga Swiatek, the Czech player bested Jessica Pegula, and in her last group match, she stunned Coco Gauff.
For the two semi-finalists, this wasn't their first meeting. They played in the Zhengzhou Open final last year, and Zheng proved to be the better player on her home soil, winning in three sets.
She didn't have the support of the home crowd this time, but she certainly had the desire to win. The Chinese player had a perfect start to the match, easily holding her serve and breaking her opponent's to lead 3-0 in no time.
Zheng continued her dominance on her serve after that. She served seven aces in the first set and won 94% of rallies after her first serve. She also hit 13 winners while making only 8 unforced errors.
She was simply the better player in the first set, and it was not surprising that she worked her way to a second break chance as well. However, she couldn't convert her two break points, which were also set points, in the eighth game of the opening set, meaning she had to serve out the first set.
She did that without any issues, winning her service game to love to win the first set of the match 6-3, establishing a crucial one-set advantage. The Chinese player certainly came into the match more rested since her opponent played the last match of the schedule on Thursday, while she could rest from Wednesday.
That freshness might have proved crucial if the match went to three sets, but Zheng did everything possible not to allow that. After breaking Krejcikova's serve twice at the start of the second set, she led already 3-0, looking to end the match quickly.
However, the Czech player showed that she deserved her spot at the WTA Finals and fought for every point. Sensationally, she broke back twice, and very quickly, Krejcikova led 4-3.
Unfortunately for her, she couldn't convert that lead into a second-set win, as Zheng was the better player in the closing stages to break again and win the match 6-3, 7-5.
With the win, she secured her spot in the final of the 2024 WTA Finals, becoming the youngest player since Petra Kvitova in 2011 to reach the final at the WTA Finals in her debut. Naturally, she was happy about that.
"It feels so special. This is my first WTA Finals, and now I’m in the final. It’s unbelievable. She’s a really good player. We played a good match. I don’t know what happened when I was leading 3-0. I want to say thanks for all the support from the fans. You gave such an amazing atmosphere."