Zheng powers past Paolini to set an historic all-chinese semi-finals

Zheng Qinwen continued produced a sublime performance in front of her home crowd to move into the last four on home soil at the Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open.

Zheng, who turned 22 three days ago advanced to her second straight semi-finals by defeating No.5 Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

Zheng’s victory sets up the first-ever all-Chinese semifinal at a WTA 1000 event. The 22-year-old Olympic champion will face 23-year-old Wang Xinyu on Saturday, with the winner advancing to her first WTA 1000 final.

No.51 Wang came through a dramatic effort earlier in the day, saving two match points and coming from a break down in the final set to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) to make her first WTA 1000 semifinal.

This week, she has managed the fatigue of her grueling summer campaign to become the winningest player since Wimbledon. Her win over Paolini is her 23rd victory since the end of the grass season, with just three losses over that span. Zheng improved to a tour-leading 18-3 (85.7%) in three-set matches in 2024.

Zheng entered the Asian swing at No.9 on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard. She will leave Wuhan at No.7 on the Race Leaderboard, overtaking Emma Navarro to sit in the final automatic qualifying spot with two weeks remaining in the regular season. Zheng is trying to become the first Chinese woman to qualify for the WTA Finals since Li Na in 2013.