Yan Zi

Yan Zi (Chinese: 晏紫; pinyin: Yàn Zī; born November 12, 1984), is a retired Chinese-born Hong Kong female professional tennis player.

In 2005, at the age of 20, Yan Zi won her only WTA Tour singles title at the Guangzhou Tier III tournament.

In singles, she first reached the World Top 100 in January 2006, achieving a then career-high of World No. 72 that March before failing to defend her breakthrough run of results the previous year and dropping back outside the Top 100 that October. Her ranking had slumped to 262 by February 2007 after a year of disappointing results, but her results then picked up again over the rest of 2007; and she regained the top 100 for the first time in ten months after a spectacular run at Canada's Tier I Rogers Cup in August, reaching the semifinals before finally being heavily defeated by World No. 1 Justine Henin 3–6, 0–6.

In doubles, Yan Zi's highest ranking to date is number 4 and she has won two grand slam titles partnering with Zheng Jie. While she has been good at doubles, her singles performance has been inconsistent as her form fluctuates. She has winning records against top 10 stars Jelena Janković 2–0, Ana Ivanovic 1–0, and Marion Bartoli 1–0.

In 2014 Yan received Hong Kong citizenship. In April 2016, she became captain of the Hong Kong Fed Cup team. She announced her retirement that year.

2002–2003

Until January 2002, Yan met with mixed results as a singles player in the lower reaches of the ITF tournament hierarchy. But that month, she reached the final of a $10,000 ITF event at Hull, losing to Liu Nannan. In May, she avenged this defeat with a win over Liu in the first round of a $50,000 tournament at Fukuoka; and again in August she defeated Liu, this time in the quarter-final of a $25,000 tournament at Beijing, only to lose to Rika Fujiwara in the semifinal. In September, she qualified for the WTA Tour contest at Shanghai, only to lose in the first round. But she had reached numerous ITF quarter-finals during the year, and finished it ranked for the first time inside the world Top 300, at #299.

In February 2003, she narrowly failed to qualify at Hyderabad, losing to Maria Kirilenko in a tight three-set match in the final round of qualifying. She put in her career-best performance to date at Fukuoka, reaching the semi-final with wins over Rika Fujiwara and countrywoman Sun Tiantian, before losing to Japanese star Saori Obata despite winning more games, the scoreline standing at 6–2, 6–7, 5–7. In July, she qualified for a WTA event at Palermo by defeating Zheng Jie and Ivana Abramović, then fell in the main draw first round to Italian rising star Francesca Schiavone in another three-setter in which she won more games than her victorious opponent, the scoreline this time being 6–0, 4–6, 3–6. These defeats suggest that she quickly runs out of steam after giving it all in the first set, thereby allowing her opponent to regroup and eventually pocket the contest. The same week, she defeated countrywoman Sun Tiantian to qualify for a $50,000 tournament at Modena, and in the main draw ousted Yulia Beygelzimer and Adriana Serra Zanetti en route to a quarter-final loss. In September, she qualified for another WTA event, the Japan Open, and defeated Ashley Harkleroad in Round Two before losing, on this occasion, to Zheng Jie in the quarter-finals. In December, she reached the semi-final of a $50,000 tournament for the second time in the year, beating Tzipora Obziler in the quarter-final at Changsha before losing to another of her prominent countrywomen, Peng Shuai. The following week, she narrowly lost in the quarterfinal of the $50,000 contest at Shenzhen to future star Sesil Karatantcheva of Bulgaria, 6–3, 1–6, 4–6. The year had brought great improvement to Yan's singles results, and her year-end ranking correspondingly improved to 179.

2004

Unfortunately, 2004 set back the Chinese player's progress slightly, but it was the calm before the storm. The year began poorly for her with a string of early losses, although she was ambitiously targeting only WTA events now, raising the bar on the required standard for successful competition. She failed to win a first-round main draw match the entire year, meeting only with moderate success in qualifying rounds; and ultimately the only relief she could find towards salvaging her world ranking was a retreat to ITF events late in the year. She reached the semi-final of a $25,000 tournament at Beijing in September (losing again to Zheng Jie), and the same stage at Shenzhen 2 (where she shocked by Li Na in the quarter-finals, then lost yet again to Zheng). This late flourish of results was enough to limp her home to a year-end ranking of 248.

2005

In January, 2005, Yan battled her way past three high-quality opponents, Julia Schruff, Shikha Uberoi and Melinda Czink, to qualify for Tennis Gold Coast, an important WTA event, where she was removed by Tatiana Golovin of France. Then in May, she managed to beat Uberoi again after qualifying for Rabat with a win over Tiantian Sun, only to lose to Arantxa Parra Santonja in the second round. Then in June, she surpassed her previous career-best result, reaching the final of a $50,000 tournament at Beijing with wins over Sun and Zheng, but lost in the final to less-feted countrywoman Li Ting. The following month, as a direct entrant to the WTA event at Modena, she defeated the much higher-ranked Marta Domachowska of Poland before losing a close three-setter to Sanda Mamić. In September, she avenged her defeat by Li Ting to qualify for Bali, only to succumb to Ting's former doubles partner Li Na in Round Two of the main draw.

On September 26, she began competing in the WTA event at Guangzhou, this year up-rated to Tier III status, and shocked herself by proceeding to win the entire tournament, having previously failed to win even one ITF singles title, and having only once reached the quarter-final stage at any WTA Tour event. To achieve this astonishing outcome, she had to produce some of her best tennis to conquer defending champion Li Na in the quarter-final, which she finally won 6–7, 7–5, 7–6 after an intense battle. The other matches against worthy opposition looked easy by comparison, as she crushed Marta Domachowska for the loss of just three games in Round Two, fought past impressive emerging teen star Victoria Azarenka 6–4, 6–3 in the semi-final, and was up 6–4, 4–0 against Nuria Llagostera Vives in the final when the Spaniard conceded victory.

A semi-final result in November's $50,000 Shenzhen tournament capped off what had proved to be a superlative year for Yan, leaving her world-ranked 104, within the direct-entry threshold of Grand Slam events and minor WTA tournaments, and within the qualifying-entry threshold of even the more exclusive WTA fixtures.

2006

Yan during the first round of the 2006 Australian Open.

She began 2006 by narrowly failing to qualify for Tennis Gold Coast, despite wins over Vania King and Shikha Uberoi, as the capable American Angela Haynes defeated her in three sets. But she succeeded in qualifying for Sydney with stunning straight-sets victories over Eva Birnerová, Denisa Chládková and Anastasia Yakimova, and beat the high-ranked Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6–3, 6–3 in the main draw first round before losing a three-set match to Francesca Schiavone, who had to struggle through a nail-bitingly close second-set tiebreak to avoid a straight sets loss to Yan, only to win the final set by a more comfortable margin.

As if these scores were not enough to prove her capability to the wider world, at the Australian Open she knocked out former No. 15 and the previous year's semi-finalist, Nathalie Dechy of France, in the first round, she then defeated unseeded Aleksandra Wozniak 6–3, 6–4, before suffering to former No. 19 Sybille Bammer. February brought more disappointing results in singles for Yan, as she lost a three-setter to Emma Laine of Finland at Pattaya, and failed to qualify for Doha and Dubai. But still, her January results and some points picked up in qualifying rounds in February had improved her world ranking to a career-best 66, just one place behind Li Na.

2007

At the second round of the 2007 Canada Masters in Toronto, Canada she upset World No. 4 Ana Ivanovic with a score of 6–3, 6–1 in just over an hour, even as Ivanovic had a rare off day. She then beat Eleni Daniilidou in the third round and 2007's Wimbledon's finalist Marion Bartoli (who retired while trailing 2–6, 0–3) in the quarters. Yan's run was ended in the semi-finals by World No.1 Justine Henin, who showed the door through a straight sets 3–6, 0–6 win over her.

2008

Yan started 2008 poorly, with a first round loss at the Australian Open to eventual quarterfinalist Venus Williams 6–2, 7–5. However, at the Bangalore Open she upset Maria Kirilenko saving 3 match points. Afterwards she managed to upset Jelena Janković in a quarterfinal, winning 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, although Janković did struggle with a shoulder injury. She eventually lost to runner-up Patty Schnyder 6–3, 6–4. She made her top 50 debut afterwards at No. 43.

At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Yan and her partner Zheng Jie won the women's doubles bronze medal, defeating the Ukrainian duo of Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko in the Bronze medal match.

2009

In January, Yan played qualifying singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles at the Australian Open. In qualifying singles, she was seeded eighth but lost to unseeded Alexandra Panova of Russia, 7–6 (7–2), 2–6, 9–7 in the qualifying second round. In women's doubles, she partnered with countrywoman Zheng Jie and was seeded sixth and lost in the third round. In mixed doubles, she partnered with Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and was seeded second and lost in the second round. Because of playing doubles extensively her singles ranking has dropped to where it is hard for her to get into events. She has started playing doubles with Chia-Jung Chuang, now because she wants to get out of Zheng's shadow. The choice was more so, though, because she wants to improve her singles ranking.

Singles: 1 (1–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	September 26, 2005	Guangzhou, China	Hard	Nuria Llagostera Vives	6–4, 4–0 ret.

Doubles: 28 (17–11)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	June 14, 2003	Vienna, Austria	Clay	Zheng Jie	Li Ting Sun Tiantian	3–6, 4–6
Winner	1.	January 14, 2005	Hobart, Australia	Hard	Zheng Jie	Anabel Medina Garrigues Dinara Safina	6–4, 7–5
Winner	2.	February 12, 2005	Hyderabad, India	Hard	Zheng Jie	Li Ting Sun Tiantian	6–4, 6–1
Runner-up	2.	September 13, 2005	Bali, Indonesia	Hard	Zheng Jie	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Meghann Shaughnessy	3–6, 3–6
Runner-up	3.	September 25, 2005	Beijing, China	Hard	Zheng Jie	María Vento-Kabchi Nuria Llagostera Vives	2–6, 4–6
Winner	3.	January 28, 2006	Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Zheng Jie	Lisa Raymond Samantha Stosur	2–6, 7–6(7), 6–3
Runner-up	4.	February 12, 2006	Pattaya City, Thailand	Hard	Zheng Jie	Li Ting Sun Tiantian	6–3, 1–6, 6–7(5)
Winner	4.	May 14, 2006	Berlin, Germany	Clay	Zheng Jie	Elena Dementieva Flavia Pennetta	6–2, 6–3
Winner	5.	May 21, 2006	Rabat, Morocco	Clay	Zheng Jie	Ashley Harkleroad Bethanie Mattek	6–1, 6–3
Winner	6.	June 24, 2006	s'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Zheng Jie	Ana Ivanovic Maria Kirilenko	3–6, 6–2, 6–2
Winner	7.	July 8, 2006	Wimbledon, Great Britain	Grass	Zheng Jie	Virginia Ruano Pascual Paola Suárez	6–3, 3–6, 6–2
Runner-up	5.	July 26, 2006	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	Zheng Jie	Eva Birnerová Jarmila Gajdošová	6–0, 4–6, 2–6
Winner	8.	August 26, 2006	New Haven, United States	Hard	Zheng Jie	Lisa Raymond Samantha Stosur	6–4, 6–2
Winner	9.	April 15, 2007	Charleston, United States	Clay	Zheng Jie	Peng Shuai Sun Tiantian	7–5, 6–0
Winner	10.	May 26, 2007	Strasbourg, France	Clay	Zheng Jie	Alicia Molik Sun Tiantian	6–3, 6–4
Winner	11.	September 30, 2007	Guangzhou, China	Hard	Peng Shuai	Vania King Sun Tiantian	6–3, 6–4
Winner	12.	October 7, 2007	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Sun Tiantian	Chuang Chia-jung Vania King	1–6, 6–2, [10–6]
Winner	13.	October 14, 2007	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard	Sun Tiantian	Ayumi Morita Junri Namigata	walkover
Runner-up	6.	January 5, 2008	Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Zheng Jie	Dinara Safina Ágnes Szávay	1–6, 2–6
Winner	14.	January 11, 2008	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Zheng Jie	Tatiana Perebiynis Tatiana Poutchek	6–4, 7–6(5)
Runner-up	7.	March 1, 2008	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Zheng Jie	Cara Black Liezel Huber	5–7, 2–6
Runner-up	8.	March 22, 2008	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	Zheng Jie	Dinara Safina Elena Vesnina	1–6, 6–1, [8–10]
Winner	15.	May 24, 2008	Strasbourg, France	Clay	Tatiana Perebiynis	Chan Yung-jan Chuang Chia-jung	6–4, 6–7(3), [10–6]
Runner-up	9.	September 21, 2008	Guangzhou, China	Hard	Sun Tiantian	Mariya Koryttseva Tatiana Poutchek	6–3, 2–6, [8–10]
Runner-up	10.	May 23, 2009	Warsaw, Poland	Clay	Zheng Jie	Raquel Kops-Jones Bethanie Mattek-Sands	1–6, 1–6
Winner	16.	August 9, 2009	Los Angeles, United States	Hard	Chuang Chia-jung	Maria Kirilenko Agnieszka Radwańska	6–0, 4–6, [10–7]
Winner	17.	April 11, 2010	Ponte Vedra, United States	Clay	Bethanie Mattek-Sands	Chuang Chia-jung Peng Shuai	4–6, 6–4, [10–8]
Runner-up	11.	May 17, 2010	Warsaw, Poland	Clay	Cara Black	Virginia Ruano Pascual Meghann Shaughnessy	3–6, 4–6

Singles performance timeline

• ¹ As of 2008, Doha is a Tier I tournament, replacing San Diego and Zurich.

Doubles performance timeline