Qinwen Zheng proved to be too strong for Elena Rybakina, beating her in three sets at the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh.
The Purple Group at the 2024 WTA Finals could also be called the group of heavy hitters and Jasmine Paolini. The Italian player stands out in the group but in a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word.
Still, Paolini managed to win her first match at the event against Rybakina, who came into her second round-robin match knowing that she had to win if she wanted to keep her chances of making it to the semi-final alive.
Her opponent, Zheng, was in the same situation. She lost in her first match to Aryna Sabalenka, so this match was crucial for both players if they wanted to challenge for one of the spots that secured a semi-final appearance.
Luckily for both players, there was also a scenario that could see them make the semi-finals even with a second loss in the round-robin stage. However, one of the tennis players is a mathematician, and they instead focus their efforts on trying to win the match, which both did.
Although it was a match of two great servers, there were plenty of break points on offer in both sets. Rybakina was the first player to work her way to a break point, but she left two of them unused in the third game of the opening set.
That proved to be costly as in the following game, Zheng also had two break points, but unlike her opponent, she could use her chances and broke to lead 3-1.
The Chinese player then confirmed the break of serve with a hold, and it looked like she was heading to a simple first-set win, especially since she led 4-1 and 30-0.
But things got complicated for her. She lost her serve in the seventh game, with Rybakina then leveling the score at 4-4. From there, both players held their serve, taking the first set into the tie-break.
In the tie-break, Rybakina got the first mini-break, but from that moment, Zheng was the better player, mini-breaking her opponent three times to win the tie-break 7-4.
The Chinese player used that victorious momentum from the first set also at the start of the second set, as she broke for a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately for her, she immediately lost it.
The following games were games of lost chances for Zheng. She first set 30-0 on her serve to be broken and then led 40-15 on Rybakina's serve but failed to break.
On top of that, she was broken in the following game, and that sequence led to Rybakina winning the second set of the match 6-3 to force the decider in Riyadh.
However, in the third set, the Kazakhstani player couldn't keep up with her opponent. Zheng was serving extremely well, and she was also creating and converting chances on her opponent's serve.
All of that meant that Zheng won the third set easily to win the match 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-1, securing her first victory at the WTA Finals. With the win, she also got a step closer to securing her spot in the semi-finals of the year-end championship.
Her last opponent will be Jasmine Paolini, and should she beat her, she will very likely secure the semi-final spot, regardless of the other results.
There is also an improbable scenario that would see her miss out on the spot even if she beat Paolini, and that includes the Italian player beating Sabalenka and Sabalenka then beating Rybakina, with both Paolini and Sabalenka having a better set or game record than the Chinese player.
On the other hand, Rybakina now needs and improbable scenario to advance. If she wants to make it to the semi-finals of the competition, she will need Paolini to beat both Sabalenka and Zheng, and she herself will need to beat Sabalenka. On top of that, she will need to have the best set or game record from the trio of herself, Zheng, and Sabalenka.