China's Zheng Saisai captured her first WTA title Sunday at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., after a fairytale week that saw her defeat a series of seeded opponents, including No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets in the final.
Zheng opened the US Open Series event with a decisive 6-3, 6-1 win over unseeded Heather Watson and then notched upsets over four seeded players on her way to the title—No. 8 seed Danielle Collins, 6-2, 6-0, in the second-round; No. 4 Amanda Anisimova, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, in the quarterfinals; No. 7 and last year's finalist Maria Sakkari, 7-6, 6-2, in the semifinals; followed by Sabalenka, 6-3, 7-6, in the final.
Her win in San Jose is the biggest title won by a Chinese player since Li Na captured her second Grand Slam championship at the Australian Open in 2014.
Here's more on Zheng, who has represented China in Fed Cup play in 2015, 2016 and 2019:
The Zheng Saisai File
Age: 25
Birthplace: Shaanxi, China
Current Rank: 38
Career-High Rank: 38 (December 2018)
Best US Open Finish: Second round (2014, 2016, 2017)
The Baseline
- Zheng, who was making her first appearance in a Premier-level final, picked up her first Top-10 victory since 2017, when she beat Sabalenka for the title. With the win, she moves back into the world's Top 50 and equals her career-high ranking of No. 38, which she first reached last December.
- Zheng improves her lifetime record against ninth-ranked Sabalenka to 2-0. She also won her previous meeting with the Belarusian in straight sets two years ago in Zhuhai.
- Before claiming the San Jose title, Zheng had posted her best results at tournaments in her native China. The 25-year-old played in her only other WTA final just over a year ago in Nanchang, and all three of her 125K titles—Dalian 2015, Zhengzhou 2018 and Anning 2019—plus two other finals at that level took place in her home country.
- In addition to her singles success, Zheng is also a talented doubles player and, currently ranked No. 31 in the WTA doubles rankings, has the goal of one day winning a Grand Slam doubles title. She was one step away from realizing her dream at this year's French Open, where she and partner Duan Ying-Ying finished runner-up to champions Kristina Mladenovic and Timea Babos. Her best US Open doubles result to date came in 2016, when she reached the third round.
They Said It!
"After Wimbledon, I was in China, and my best friend from Hong Kong told me, 'When you are calm and not so emotional, you can use your brain and play your best tennis, but you haven't felt that the last few months.' I started to feel like I was dealing with too much pressure and expectation, and so I was trying just to play, in practice and matches, and not think about results. So I really want to thank her, how she spoke to me after I'd been losing so much. It was a problem I fixed this week with a good result here." — Zheng Saisai
