Final Bound! Zheng Qinwen Makes China Open History

The China Open had never had a Chinese finalist. Until Qinwen Zheng.

Zheng defeated Elise Mertens 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday to reach the championship match, where she will face Mirra Andreeva on Sunday on Diamond Court.

Andreeva, the 19-year-old reigning French Open champion defeated Nikola Bartunkova 6-2, 6-2 in just 74 minutes in Saturday’s other semifinal.

While the 24-year-old Zheng is thrilled to make history for her country, making history wasn’t her focus. Playing good tennis was.

“I haven’t thought that far in the beginning of the tournament, because for me, the importance is just to play match by match,” she said. “I’m glad I can be the first one.”

The result marks another milestone in the comeback of the former world No. 4, whose career took a difficult turn after her breakthrough 2024 season. That year, Zheng reached the Australian Open final and won gold at the Paris Olympics, establishing herself among the world’s elite.

Zheng was largely absent from competition in 2025 after undergoing elbow surgery and fell to No. 160 in the world rankings. In a resurgent two months, Zheng has bounced back, appearing in the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open and reaching the finals in Beijing.

However, she believes that the best version of herself is yet to come.

“I would not say that I’m back,” she said. “I would say that the best version of me is still upcoming in the future. I don’t want to be good in just one tournament. I want to be consistently high level in many tournaments.”  

Zheng hasn’t had an easy run at the China Open with four of her matches going into three sets. But in her quarterfinal match against Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, things started to click.

“I would say my matches are more free and I achieved better tennis because I’m the kind of player (where) my limits are really high,” she said. “I’m lucky that I’ve been playing some really aggressive tennis because that’s the goal I had for myself.”

The support from her home crowd fueled Zheng to a blazing start as cheers of “Go Qinwen, Jiayou!” filled Diamond Court. Zheng claimed the first three games of the match in just under ten minutes.

However, 30-year-old Mertens was not letting the crowd favorite off easily. After Zheng extended her lead to 4-1, Mertens stormed back to take four out of the next five games.

Despite a valiant comeback attempt, Mertens, who hoped to advance to her first ever WTA 1000 singles final, simply couldn’t keep up Zheng.

After closing out the first set 7-5, Zheng soared in the second in pursuit of advancing to her second ever WTA 1000 final.

She conceded only 17 points in the second set, cruising to the win. With the help of eight aces, Zheng looked strong and confident, eyeing her first ever WTA 1000 title.  

It would be pretty special for Zheng to achieve that goal at home.

“I’m always proud to play in front of my home crowd,” she said. “I always want to show my best level in front of them because I know how much they support me.”

For Andreeva, her big season just keeps getting bigger.

Her Saturday victory will send her to No. 3 when the new world rankings come out next week.

“I’m really happy with the way I was playing,” said Andreeva, the youngest player to reach the China Open final since 2007. “I really tried to be brave no matter what, and I’m super happy with my performance today.”

Andreeva is chasing her fourth singles title of the season (Roland Garros, Linz and Adelaide) and third career WTA 1000 title (Dubai and Indian Wells in 2025).

Saturday’s victory marked her 50th match win of 2026, pulling her level with Jessica Pegula for the most wins on tour this season.

Andreeva also clinched qualification for the WTA Finals during her time in Beijing, securing her debut in the season-ending singles tournament. Last year, she fell just six points short of qualifying.

“I only had to win one match, I didn’t,” Andreeva said with a smile, reflecting on last year. “Of course, that was tough. But this year, also learning from my mistakes, I just tried really to, as much as possible, block those thoughts out, just focus on the tournaments that I have to play.”

Andreeva broke Bartunkova’s serve five times across the match to claim victory. Andreeva won the first four games of the match and four of the first five games in the second set.

Andreeva currently leads the tour in converted break points with 301 overall.

“We've been working on returning a lot,” Andreeva said. “I feel like even if the opponent serves well, you still have to try and put some pressure on the server. I feel like the work is paying off little by little. So, super happy with those numbers.”

Andreeva dropped her opening set of the China Open but has since won 10 consecutive sets. In her five matches, Andreeva has lost only 31 games.

“I just felt like with every match that I've been playing, I was feeling better and better physically and mentally — the way I was playing on court, as well,” Andreeva said. “I think I feel pretty confident because I think I'm pretty satisfied, with especially the way that I was playing today.”

The home side could see two winners on Championship Sunday. In doubles, top-seeded Katerina Siniakova and Zhang Shuai defeated Aldila Sutjiadi and Erin Routliffe 6-4, 6-2 in 74 minutes to advance to the China Open final.

For Zhang, the victory brought her one step closer to a milestone she has long dreamed of achieving.

“I’ve never won (a tournament),” Zhang said. “Never even reached the final. But I will try my best. I really want to win this trophy.

“It’s always been the biggest dream.”

The top seeds built their victory on a dominant serving performance, winning 81 percent of points behind their first serve.

Zhang credited Siniakova, the world’s No. 1 ranked doubles player, with elevating her game and giving her the freedom to play with confidence.

“Katerina is the big key,” Zhang said. “When she is on my side, I can do anything I want. Without her, I don’t know if I could play doubles. She’s the best doubles player in the world, and she opens up everything for me.”

They will face either Mertens and Diana Shnaider or No. 2 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani in the final.

By Maggie Bane, Isabel Kirkwood and Pranav Sriraman