Eleven years ago, Li Na blazed trails by becoming the first Chinese player to ever win a Grand Slam singles title when she triumphed Roland Garros. When she walked away from tennis just eight months after winning her second major at the 2014 Australian Open, a question was soon obvious: Who'd come next?
At the 2022 US Open, they've arrived: Zheng Qinwen, Wang Xiyu, Yuan Yue and Zhang Shuai are all through to Round 3 in women's singles in an Open Era first for the country.
Three were likely inspired by the history-maker herself. Zhang is the veteran of the group at age 33, and boasts two Grand Slam singles quarterfinals and two major doubles titles among a litany of career accomplishments. But Zheng, 19, Yuan, 23, and Wang, 21 are the next generation, ones who no doubt saw the transcendent superstar raise the sport's biggest trophies when they were impressionable youngsters. Zheng and Yuan are, in fact, playing their first US Open main draw this year.
This group has earned their history-making achievement. Each is unseeded, and both Zheng and Wang upset a seeded player to get to this point.
Zheng, the youngest, knocked out former Roland Garros champion and No. 16 seed Jelena Ostapenko in the opening round 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 and followed that up with a 7-6(4), 7-6(3) win over Anastasia Potapova, while Wang stunned No. 3 seed Maria Sakkari from a set down in Round 2—giving the left-hander the honor of scoring the biggest upset of the tournament's first two rounds. Yuan, who lost just 18 games in three matches in qualifying, hasn't dropped a set in five wins.
It's been a banner week-and-a-half for China so far, as five of their players are amongst the last 32 in both singles draws. Wu Yibing already etched his name in the record books by becoming the first Chinese man to ever qualify for the US Open main draw, and now he's backed that up with two strong wins in the big show.
In Round 1, the 2017 US Open boys' singles and doubles champion rolled to a 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 win over No. 31 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili, and he followed that up with a marathon 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Nuno Borges in a Round 2 clash of qualifiers. His reward is a Friday night date with defending champion Daniil Medvedev under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"If there is a first time, there is going to be a second time, a third time. I'm happy that I'm the first guy to make it the history," Wu told reporters on Wednesday. He was the first Chinese man to win a Grand Slam of any kind when he won here in the juniors.
"But the more important is this bring the hope to all the Chinese fans and the kids so we can have more great players in our country, which I think we should have long time ago."
Zheng thinks the group's collective success in New York is no coincidence. In fact, she says, they're all pushing each other.
"I think this is so positive," Zheng told reporters on Thursday. "[It] means in China the tennis start to go up. I think between each other we have really, like, competition, I mean, good competition between each other. You know, when you are have someone to compete, you always can performance better.
"I think with this energy, I hope all of us, we can going as far as we can. Of course, congrats to all of them. [It's] such good performance here, and I'm happy for all of them."
