Zheng Saisai

Zheng Saisai or Zheng Sai-Sai (郑赛赛; born February 5, 1994) is a Chinese tennis player. Her highest WTA singles ranking is No. 60, which she reached in August 2016. Her career high in doubles is No. 15, achieved on July 11, 2016.

Early Career: 2009–2011

In 2009, Zheng was awarded a wildcard into a $10,000 ITF event in Shenzhen and won her first ITF title, defeating Sabina Sharipova in the final.

In 2010, Zheng achieved great success at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore, winning the silver medal in singles and the gold medal in doubles with Tang Haochen. Zheng played three $10,000 ITF events in 2010 and reached the final of each one. She won one title and finished with a year-end ranking of 661.

Despite failing to win a title in 2011, Zheng reached two finals at $25,000 ITF events and finished with a year-end ranking of 276.

2012: Continued rise

After a solid start to the year, Zheng's first big breakthrough came at a $50,000 ITF event in Wenshan, where she reached the biggest final of her career without dropping a set. She lost the final to Hsieh Su-wei.

Zheng's success at the $50,000 level continued as she reached the quarterfinals in Gifu (losing to Kurumi Nara, whom she had beaten two times previously that year), the semifinals in Fukuoka (losing to Casey Dellacqua, whom she had beaten the week before in Gifu), and finally winning the biggest title of her career in Kurume.

Despite her success at the ITF level, Zheng did not enter the qualifying draw for the French Open, but she participated in doubles with Dominika Cibulková as her partner and reached the second round.

Zheng did, however, enter the qualifying draw at Wimbledon. She beat Teliana Pereira in three sets in the first round but lost her next match to Bibiane Schoofs.

Zheng failed to qualify for the main draw in Stanford, but was awarded a lucky loser and achieved her first ever WTA main-draw win against Ayumi Morita, who retired when Zheng was leading 4-2. Zheng lost in the second round to Sorana Cîrstea.

Zheng reached the final round of qualifying at the US Open but lost in straight sets to Julia Glushko.

Zheng was given a wildcard into Guangzhou, where she defeated Julia Cohen in the first round. She fell to Mathilde Johansson in the second round. She received a wildcard into Beijing, but lost in the first round to Hsieh Su-wei in straight sets.

In Zheng's last event of the year, she won a $25,000 event in Taipei. She finished the year with a ranking of 133.

2013: Slight Regression

Zheng lost her first four matches of the year, including the first qualifying round of the Australian Open. However, she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in doubles with Varvara Lepchenko.

She rebounded at a $50,000 ITF event in Wenshan, where she reached the semifinals. This was followed by two straight second round losses in $50,000 events. Zheng then played in Kurume, where she was the defending champion. She lost in the quarterfinals.

Zheng then attempted to qualify for the French Open, but lost 6-1 6-3 to Johanna Konta in the first round. She reached the quarterfinals in doubles, again with Lepchenko.

At this point, Zheng's ranking was barely inside the top 200, but she managed to turn her season around by taking advantage of a favorable draw at a $75,000 event in Beijing to reach the semifinals. About a month later, Zheng entered a WTA $125K event in Suzhou and beat three seeded players (including Zhang Shuai and Misaki Doi) to reach the final, where she lost in three sets to former World No. 11 Shahar Pe'er.

Zheng then entered U.S. Open qualifying but again lost to Julia Glushko, this time in the first round.

Zheng began her Asian swing at a $50,000 event in Sanya, where she beat Zarina Diyas in the quarterfinals and Zhang Shuai in the semifinals before losing to Karolína Plíšková in the final. The next week, Zheng received a wildcard into the WTA International event in Guangzhou, where she edged qualifier Luksika Kumkhum before losing in straight sets to Laura Robson.

Zheng did not win back-to-back matches for over a month, when she reached she reached the quarterfinals of two WTA $125K events in Nanjing and Taipei, losing to Zhang Shuai and Yanina Wickmayer respectively.

Zheng ended the year ranked 162 in singles and 39 in doubles.

2014: Breakthrough

Zheng started her year in Shenzhen, where she received a wildcard into the main draw. She lost in the first round to second seed and then-World No. 7 Sara Errani in a third-set tiebreak, despite being bagelled in the first set. She lost in the first qualifying round of the Australian Open to Irina Falconi.

Zheng was then routed in two straight matches by much lower ranked opponents. In Quanzhou she lost 6-2 6-4 to No. 700 Michika Ozeki, and in Innisbrook she lost 6-1 6-2 to No. 937 Katerina Stewart. Zheng rebounded at a $50,000 event in Osprey, where she easily won two qualifying matches before losing in the final round of qualifying to Ashleigh Barty.

At a WTA Premier event in Charleston, Zheng beat Anastasia Rodionova in the first round of qualifying, and reached the main draw with a win by retirement over Estrella Cabeza Candela. She lost in the first round of the main draw to Yaroslava Shvedova 7-5 in the third set.

Zheng reached the final in doubles at Kuala Lumpur with Chan Yung-jan but lost to the top-seeded pairing of Chan's sister Chan Hao-ching and Tímea Babos in straight sets.

Zheng was the second seed at a $25,000 event in Nanning, but lost in three sets to No. 422 Tang Haochen. The next week, at a $50,000 event in Anning, Zheng was the #4 seed. She won her first round match when her opponent Justyna Jegiołka retired after just one game. Zheng won her next two matches in straight sets to reach the semifinals, where she defeated Monique Adamczak in three sets. In the final, Zheng stunned top seed Jovana Jakšić who had reached the final of the WTA International event in Monterrey earlier in the year. This was the equal-biggest title of Zheng's career, and it pushed her to a career-high ranking of No. 127.

After a second round loss at a $75,000 event in Trnava and a loss in the final round of qualifying at the WTA event in Strasbourg, Zheng entered the qualifying draw of the French Open as the 21st seed. She won her first match in three sets over Nastassja Burnett but lost in the second round to Maryna Zanevska.

Zheng then suffered three straight straight-sets losses on grass to players ranked below her, including in the first round of Wimbledon qualifying. She tried to recapture her best form at a $50,000 clay event in Versmold, but lost in the first round to Carina Witthöft, despite winning the first set.

Zheng snapped her five-match losing streak at the WTA 125K event in Nanchang, where she won two three-set matches to reach the quarterfinals. There she upset Misaki Doi in straight sets before losing in three sets to Peng Shuai in the semifinals. After the tournament, Zheng rose to World No. 113. However, she could not build on her momentum, as she lost in the first round of a $50,000 event in Wuhan despite being the #2 seed.

Zheng was unable to defend her points from the previous year in Suzhou; as a result she entered the U.S. Open qualifying draw ranked World No. 148 and unseeded. After beating Olga Savchuk in three sets she again upset Jovana Jakšić to reach the final round of qualifying, where she defeated compatriot Zhu Lin 6-3 6-1 to reach her first ever Grand Slam main draw in her ninth attempt. Her great run was not finished, however, as she recovered from a first set blowout against Stefanie Vögele to pull off the upset, 1-6 6-2 6-2. In the second round she faced the #14 seed Lucie Šafářová and lost in three sets.

Zheng then reached the quarterfinals at the WTA 125K event in Suzhou, losing to top seed Jana Čepelová. The next week, she played the WTA International event in Hong Kong. She beat Duan Yingying and sixth seed Yanina Wickmayer to reach her first WTA quarterfinal, where she lost to top seed and eventual champion Sabine Lisicki in straight sets.

Zheng reached her first ever WTA semifinal at her next event in Tianjin. After beating Tímea Babos in the first round, she stunned top seed and former World No. 1 Jelena Janković for her first top-20 win. She then beat Sorana Cîrstea in three sets to reach the semifinals. There she lost 6-0 6-1 to Alison Riske, who went on to win her first WTA title at the event.

Zheng reached two quarterfinals to end her year at the WTA 125K events in Ningbo and Taipei, losing to Magda Linette and Ana Bogdan, respectively. She finished the year as the World No. 97 in singles and World No. 81 in doubles.

2015: Continued WTA Success

Zheng began the year in Shenzhen and reached her second straight WTA semifinal with three three-set wins before losing in straight sets to eventual champion and World No. 3 Simona Halep. She received a special exempt into the main draw of Hobart but had to retire in her first-round match against Johanna Larsson due to a thigh injury. Zheng lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Daniela Hantuchová.

The thigh injury continued to affect Zheng for the rest of the spring hard-court season, as she lost in the second round of Pattaya City to Hantuchova, had to withdraw from Dubai, and lost in the first round of Doha (as a lucky loser) to Jelena Jankovic. Zheng fell in the first round of Kuala Lumour and Indian Wells to Kateryna Kozlova and Madison Brengle, respectively. She finally notched a win in the qualifying draw of Miami, but lost in the final round of qualifying to Kozlova. However, when Peng Shuai withdrew Zheng took her place as a lucky loser. Despite receiving Peng's first-round bye, Zheng lost her first match to Spanish wildcard and World No. 419 Paula Badosa Gibert in straight sets.

Zheng chose to play ITF's in China in lieu of the clay-court season to find her form. This plan paid off, as she won two straight $75,000 events, including successfully defending the title she had won in Anning the previous year. Zheng beat Naomi Osaka and Han Xinyun in tough three-set finals. After a second-round loss in Strasbourg, Zheng won only three games against Lucie Hradecka in the first round of the French Open.

After failing to win back-to-back matches in the grass-court season, Zheng took a 4-1 lead against Caroline Wozniacki on Center Court in the first round of Wimbledon but lost 12 of the next 13 games to lose 7-5, 6-0 to the former World No. 1. Zheng then lost in the first round of a WTA 125K event in Nanchang and the Premier event in Stanford but won the doubles title of both events with Chang Kai-Chen and Xu Yi-Fan, respectively.

In the first round of the U.S. Open, Zheng lost the first set 6-2 to Madison Brengle but fought back to win the second set and take a 5-1 lead in the third. However, she was overtaken by nerves and twice failed to serve out the match. Serving down 5-6, Zheng saved several match points with aggressive play but eventually lost on a double fault. Zheng lost the final six games of the 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 defeat which at the time was the longest women's match in the history of the U.S. Open at 3 hours and 20 minutes (this record would be broken by Johanna Konta and Garbine Muguruza in the next round).

Zheng rebounded by winning the WTA 125k event in Dalian, at the time the biggest singles title of her career. She then reached the quarterfinals of the International events in Tokyo and Guangzhou. However, she followed that up with first-round defeats at Wuhan and Beijing. Zheng won the doubles title in Tianin with Xu Yi-Fan but lost her first singles match. She lost her first-round match at a $100,000 event in Nanjing to World No. 836 Tian Ran.

Zheng received a wildcard into the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai and lost to Venus Williams in three sets and Madison Keys in straight sets. Zheng snapped her seven-match losing streak by beating Lu Jia-Jing at a WTA 125K event in Hua Hin but lost her next match to Su-Wei Hsieh in three sets. Zheng finished as the World No. 70 in singles and World No. 39 in doubles

2016: Race to Rio

Zheng started her season in Shenzhen and achieved her first top-ten victory in the first round when she took the first set 6-2 off of Petra Kvitová before Kvitova retired due to illness. She lost her next match to Anett Kontaveit. She reached the doubles final with Xu Yi-Fan but they lost to Vania King and Monica Niculescu in straight sets. Zheng beat Carina Witthoeft in the first round of the Australian Open in straight sets but lost her next match to eventual semifinalist Johanna Konta. With Xu, Zheng reached the doubles semifinals, where they lost in three sets to Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.

After a second-round loss in Kaohsiung, Zheng qualified for the Premier event in Dubai but lost in the first round to eventual champion Sara Errani. In Doha, Zheng stunned World No. 2 and recent Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in straight sets in the second round. She then beat Eugenie Bouchard before falling to eventual finalist Jelena Ostapenko in the quarterfinals. In doubles, Zheng lost in a match tiebreak to Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza, who would have their 41-match winning streak ended in the next round by Daria Kasatkina and Elena Vesnina.

Zheng lost her singles form after this breakthrough as she fell in the first round of Kuala Lumpur, the final qualifying round of Indian Wells, and the first round of Miami. However, in Miami, Zheng and Xu saved a match point in their first-round match against Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova before beating Anabel Medina Garrigues and Aranxta Parra Santonja (whom they had beaten in the final of Stanford the previous summer} in a match tiebreak and Ekaterina Makarova and Barbora Strýcová in straight sets. In the semifinals, they suffered a straight-sets loss to eventual champions Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Šafářová.

Zheng's poor singles form continued with a first-round loss in Charleston, qualifying losses in Madrid and Rome, and a first-round loss in Strasbourg. Since reaching the quarterfinals of Doha, Zheng is 1-7 in singles (0-4 in main draws) and is currently on a 6-match losing streak. As a result, she failed to defend the points she earned with ITF titles in Asia at this time last year, and her singles ranking has fallen to 82. This means that she might not qualify for the singles competition at the Summer Olympics. At the French Open, Zheng lost to Dominika Cibulkova in the first round of singles but reached the quarterfinals in doubles with Xu, where they lost in straight sets to the unseeded team of Margarita Gasparyan and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Unfortunately, Zheng did not qualify for the Rio Olympics in singles but she did qualify in doubles with Xu.

Zheng began her grass-court season at Nottingham and beat second seed and home favorite Johanna Konta in the second round on her way to the semifinals, where she lost in straight sets to Alison Riske. Zheng lost to Veronica Cepede Royg in the first round of Mallorca and Varvara Lepchenko in the final round of Eastbourne qualifying. However, we was a lucky loser at Eastbourne but lost in the first round to Andrea Petkovic in three sets. At Wimbledon, Zheng lost in the first round of singles to qualifier Maria Sakkari and in doubles she and Xu blew a 5-2 final set lead against Darija Jurak and Anastasia Rodionova in the first round. Zheng played a $100,000 ITF in Budapest the second week of Wimbledon, but despite leading Sesil Karatantcheva by a set and a break in the first round, Zheng lost the second set in a tiebreak and then was forced to retire down 2-0 in the third set.

Zheng played next in Stanford, where she beat wildcard Maria Mateas in the first round and upset #7 seed Alize Cornet in the second round. She lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Johanna Konta in three sets. After this event, Zheng and Xu headed to Rio to train for the Olympics. While there, Zheng received the fantastic news that due to several withdrawals of higher-ranked players from the Olympics, she has now qualified in singles in addition to doubles. She is currently ranked #64 in singles and #19 in doubles.

Doubles: 6 (3 titles, 3 runners-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	24 September 2011	Guangzhou International Women's Open, Guangzhou, China	Hard	Hsieh Su-wei	Chan Chin-wei Han Xinyun	6–2, 6–1
Runner-up	1.	20 April 2014	Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Hard	Chan Yung-jan	Tímea Babos Chan Hao-ching	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	2.	23 May 2015	Internationaux de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France	Clay	Nadiia Kichenok	Chuang Chia-jung Liang Chen	6–4, 4–6, [10–12]
Winner	2.	9 August 2015	Bank of the West Classic, Stanford, United States	Hard	Xu Yifan	Anabel Medina Garrigues Arantxa Parra Santonja	6–1, 6–3
Winner	3.	18 October 2015	Tianjin Open, Tianjin, China	Hard	Xu Yifan	Darija Jurak Nicole Melichar	6–2, 3–6, [10–8]
Runner-up	3.	9 January 2016	Shenzhen Open, Shenzhen, China	Hard	Xu Yifan	Vania King Monica Niculescu	1–6, 4–6

Singles: 15 (8–7)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	July 6, 2009	Shenzhen, China	Hard	Sabina Sharipova	7–5, 6–4
Runner–up	1.	April 5, 2010	Ningbo, China	Hard	Tian Ran	6–2, 6–3
Runner–up	2.	June 28, 2010	Hefei, China	Hard	Duan Yingying	6–3, 6–4
Winner	2.	October 25, 2010	Taipei, Chinese Taipei	Hard	Zhang Ling	6–3, 6–3
Runner–up	3.	January 17, 2011	Muzaffarnagar, India	Grass	Tadeja Majerič	6–2, 5–7, 6–2
Runner–up	4.	January 31, 2011	Burnie, Australia	Hard	Eugenie Bouchard	6–4, 6–3
Runner–up	5.	April 9, 2012	Wenshan, China	Hard	Hsieh Su-wei	6–3, 6–3
Winner	3.	May 14, 2012	Kurume, Japan	Grass	Monique Adamczak	7–5, 6–2
Winner	4.	October 28, 2012	Taipei, Chinese Taipei	Hard	Zarina Diyas	6–4, 6–1
Runner Up	6.	August 11, 2013	Suzhou, China	Hard	Shahar Pe'er	6–2, 2–6, 6–3
Runner-up	7.	September 9, 2013	Sanya, China	Hard	Karolína Plíšková	6–3, 6–4
Winner	5.	May 5, 2014	Anning, China	Clay	Jovana Jakšić	6–2, 6–3
Winner	6.	April 27, 2015	Gifu, Japan	Hard	Naomi Osaka	3-6, 7-5, 6-4
Winner	7.	May 4, 2015	Anning, China	Clay	Han Xinyun	6-4, 3-6, 6-4
Winner	8.	September 13, 2015	Dalian, China	Hard	Julia Glushko	2–6, 6–1, 7–5

Doubles: 16 (10–6)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	June 28, 2010	Hefei, China	Hard	Tian Ran	Bai Xi Zhang Kailin	6–0, 6–4
Runner–up	1.	October 25, 2010	Taipei, Chinese Taipei	Hard	Juan Ting-fei	Kao Shao-yuan Wang Qiang	6–3, 7–6(7–2)
Winner	2.	May 23, 2011	Changwon, South Korea	Hard	Chan Hao-ching	Yurika Sema Erika Takao	6–2, 4–6, [11–9]
Runner–up	2.	August 1, 2011	Beijing, China	Hard	Tetiana Luzhanska	Chan Hao-ching Chan Yung-jan	6–2, 6–3
Winner	3.	September 12, 2011	Ningbo, China	Hard	Tetiana Luzhanska	Chan Chin-wei Han Xinyun	6–4, 5–7, [10–4]
Runner–up	3.	February 6, 2012	Launceston, Australia	Hard	Hsieh Shu-ying	Kotomi Takahata Shuko Aoyama	6–4, 6–4
Winner	4.	March 12, 2012	Sanya, China	Hard	Erika Sema	Liang Chen Zhou Yimiao	6–2, 6–2
Runner–up	4.	March 24, 2012	Phuket, Thailand	Hard	Chan Chin-wei	Natela Dzalamidze Marta Sirotkina	4–6, 1–6
Winner	5.	March 31, 2012	Phuket, Thailand	Hard	Noppawan Lertcheewakarn	Sun Shengnan Han Xinyun	6–3, 6–3
Winner	6.	May 6, 2012	Gifu, Japan	Hard	Jessica Pegula	Chan Chin-wei Hsu Wen-hsin	6–4, 3–6 [10–4]
Runner–up	5.	September 10, 2012	Ningbo, China	Hard	Tetiana Luzhanska	Shuko Aoyama Chang Kai-chen	2–6, 5–7
Runner–up	6.	April 21, 2014	Nanning, China	Hard	Zhang Ling	Zhang Kailin Han Xinyun	6–7(8–10), 6–7(3–7)
Winner	7.	May 10, 2014	Trnava, Slovakia	Clay	Stephanie Vogt	Margarita Gasparyan Evgeniya Rodina	6–4, 6–2
Winner	8.	May 8, 2015	Anning, China	Hard	Xu Yifan	Yang Zhaoxuan Ye Qiuyu	7–5, 6–2
Winner	9.	2 August 2015	Nanchang, China	Hard	Chang Kai-chen	Chan Chin-wei Wang Yafan	6–3, 4–6, [10–3]
Winner	10.	13 September 2015	Dalian, China	Hard	Zhang Kailin	Chan Chin-wei Darija Jurak	6–3, 6–4

Singles: 1 (1 silver medal)

Outcome	Year	Host nation	Surface	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Silver medal	2010	Singapore	Hard	Daria Gavrilova	6–2, 2–6, 0–6

Doubles: 1 (1 gold medal)

Outcome	Year	Host nation	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Gold medal	2010	Singapore	Hard	Tang Haochen	Jana Čepelová Chantal Škamlová	6–4, 3–6, [10–4]

Women's doubles performance timeline