Zheng Saisai or Zheng Sai-Sai (; born February 5, 1994) is a Chinese tennis player. She won one WTA singles title (at the Premier level

2019 Silicon Valley Classic The 2019 Silicon Valley Classic (also known as the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic for sponsorship reasons) was a professional tennis tournament played on hard courts. It was the 48th edition of the tournament, and part of the WTA Premier tourname ...

), five WTA doubles titles, and reached the final of the

2019 French Open The 2019 French Open was a major tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was held at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from 26 May to 9 June, comprising singles, doubles and mixed doubles play. Junior and wheelchair tournamen ...

in doubles with compatriot

Duan Yingying Duan Yingying (; born 3 July 1989) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. In her career, she won one singles title and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, and two WTA Challenger doubles titles, as well as eleven singles and three d ...

. She also won three singles and three doubles titles on

WTA 125 tournaments WTA 125 tournaments are an international series of professional women's tennis tournaments organized by the Women's Tennis Association since 2012. In the past (2012–2015) sometimes called the WTA Challenger seriesITF Circuit. On 2 March 2020, she achieved her career-high singles ranking of world No. 34. On 11 July 2016, she peaked at No. 15 in the doubles rankings. Playing for

China Fed Cup team The China women's national tennis team represents China in Fed Cup tennis competition and is governed by the Chinese Tennis Association. History China competed in its first Fed Cup in 1981. China competed at the World Group level in 2007 throug ...

, Zheng has a win–loss record of 11–6.

Early life and background

Zheng started playing tennis at age eight at tennis academy where mother worked. She stated that her tennis idol growing up was Justine Henin. Her favorite tournaments are Australian Open and Wimbledon. Zheng is coached by Alan Ma (). Her favorite shot is drop shot. Her father is of Tibetan ethnicity. She also has a Tibetan name, Suodian Zhuoma (). Her nickname is '' Jaguar'', for her footwork and defence.

Professional career

2008–12: ITF & WTA debut, top 100 in doubles

Zheng began playing on the

ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmental ...

in June 2008, at the age of 14, where, at the $25k Qian Shan, she lost in the first round of qualifying against fellow Chinese Zhou Xiao. Her first main-draw appearance happened next year, at a $10k event in

Jiangmen Jiangmen (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province in southern China. As of the 2020 census, its three urban districts, plus Heshan City being conurbated, with 2,657,662 inhabitants a ...

in February. In July 2009, she played her first ITF singles final and also win the trophy, at the $10k Shenzhen, after defeating

Sabina Sharipova Sabina Sharipova (born 4 September 1994) is an Uzbek former professional tennis player. Up to date, she has won 15 singles and seven doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 5 November 2018, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 122. ...

in the final. On the same tournament, she also made her doubles debut, but lost in the first round. In July 2010, she won her first ITF doubles title at the $10k Hefei, alongside

Tian Ran Tian Ran (; ; born 8 January 1994) is a China former tennis player. Tian has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 297, achieved on 24 October 2016. She also has a highest WTA doubles ranking of 212, achieved on 10 June 2013. Tian made ...

. She won one singles title, at the $10k Taipei in October 2010. In September 2011, Zheng made her

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tou ...

debut in both singles and doubles at the Guangzhou International Open. There she won her first doubles title, partnering

Hsieh Su-wei Hsieh Su-wei ( ;''Xiè 謝淑薇Shūwēi'' in Chinese mainland. Taiwanese Mandarin: ; in Standard Mandarin of Chinese mainland. born 4 January 1986) is an inactive Taiwanese professional tennis player. She has won three singles titles and 30 ...

and defeating

Chan Chin-wei Chan Chin-wei (, born 8 January 1985) is a former professional tennis player from Taiwan. She won one doubles title on the WTA Tour, along with six singles and 49 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She reached her best singles ranking o ...

and

Han Xinyun Han Xinyun (; ; born 30 May 1990), also known as Monica Han, is a Chinese professional tennis player. Han has won three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as one doubles title on the WTA Challenger Tour. She also has won nine singles and ...

in straight sets. In singles, she lost in the first round. Week later, she debut at the Premier Mandatory-level China Open as a

wildcard Wild card most commonly refers to: * Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games * Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...

player only in singles, but lost in the first round. During the year, she also did well at the ITF Circuit in doubles, winning the $100k Ningbo Challenger alongside Tetiana Luzhanska in September 2011, right before she made her WTA Tour debut. As the year passed by, Zheng progressed more and more in doubles ranking, starting the year as No. 794 and finishing the year as world No. 108. In singles, she rose from 670 to No. 276. At the

2012 French Open The 2012 French Open (also known as Roland Garros, after the famous French aviator) was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 116th edition of the French Open, and took place at the Stade Roland Garros from 27 May until 11 ...

, Zheng made her doubles

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

debut and also won her first match there. Later, she had her first attempts to be part of the Grand Slam main draw in singles, but lost in the qualifications of Wimbledon, and later of US Open. In July 2012, she won her first singles match at the Premier-level Stanford Classic, defeating

Ayumi Morita is a Japanese tennis player. She reached her career-high ranking of number 40 in the world in October 2011. At junior level, she reached a combined career-high ranking of world No. 3. Morita is known for strong and consistent two-handed grounds ...

in the first round. For the second year-in-a-row, she played at the China Open as wildcard player, but again lost in the first round. This time she also played in doubles, but lost in the first round. During the season, she progress in singles ranking, entering top 150 for the first time in September 2012 and finished year as world No. 133. In doubles, she debuted in the top 100 in February 2012, then rose to No. 84 in July, but finished the year as world No. 98.

2013–15: Progress, Australian Open semifinals in doubles

Zheng had a strong start of the year, reaching Australian Open doubles semifinal as her first significant Grand Slam result. In that semifinal match, she partnered with

Varvara Lepchenko Varvara (Cyrillic: Варвара; el, Βαρβάρα, ''Varvára''), a variant of " Barbara", may refer to: Places *Varvara, Azerbaijan * Varvara, Prozor, on the Rama river, Bosnia and Herzegovina * Varvara, Burgas Province, Bulgaria * Varvara ...

and they were defeated by Australians

Ashleigh Barty Ashleigh is the feminine form of the Old English name Ashley, which means "dweller near the ash tree forest". It is most common in the United States and United Kingdom. Notable people B *Ashleigh Ball (born 1983), Canadian voice actress * Ashle ...

and

Casey Dellacqua Casey Dellacqua ( ; born 11 February 1985) is a retired Australian professional tennis player and current commentator. Her best singles results on the WTA Tour have been semifinal appearances at the 2012 Texas Tennis Open and 2014 Birmingham ...

, in straight sets. She still do not shine in singles, but continued with good performances in doubles, reaching later quarterfinal at the French Open, also with Lepchenko, where they were defeated by top-seeded Italian duo

Sara Errani Sara Errani (; born 29 April 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. She is a former top five player in singles and former world No. 1 in doubles. With 9 singles titles and 27 doubles titles (including 5 Grand Slam doubles championship ...

and

Roberta Vinci Roberta Vinci (; born 18 February 1983) is an Italian professional padel and former tennis player. In doubles tennis, she won five major tournaments and reached the world No. 1 position. She also reached a career-high ranking of world No. 7 i ...

, in straight sets. In August, she made huge progress in singles, reaching the final of the Suzhou Open, but lost to Shahar Peer. By the end of the year, in singles, she reached two

WTA 125 WTA 125 tournaments are an international series of professional women's tennis tournaments organized by the Women's Tennis Association since 2012. In the past (2012–2015) sometimes called the WTA Challenger seriesJapan Women's Open in doubles. In the doubles ranking, Zheng debut in the top 50 in doubles, getting to place 49 in March, and then rose to No. 38, that also was her year-end ranking. In singles, she made ups and downs in the rankings, but spent whole year inside top 200. She finished the year as world No. 162. Things became better for Zheng in singles in 2014. She had her major main-draw debut in singles, passed qualifying at the US Open and also then her first match-win there. She defeated Stefanie Vögele in the first round, but then lost to Lucie Šafářová. She then had success at both WTA Tour and WTA 125 tournaments. At the WTA Tour, she first reached quarterfinal of the Hong Kong Open and then semifinal of the Tianjin Open, while at the Challenger Tour, she reached quarterfinals in Suzhou, Ningbo and Taipei. During the year, she reached one final in doubles, at the Malaysian Open in April. On 13 October 2014, she entered top 100 in singles, when she reached the spot of world No. 92. Zheng finished 2014 season as the 97th. In doubles, she made ups and downs, but spent whole year inside top 100 and finished 81. During the year, Zheng made good performances, both in singles and doubles. Her most valued title of the year was at the Premier-level Stanford Classic in doubles event in August. That was her first final and title from higher-level tournament, than International. Along with that, in October she won Tianjin Open, also in doubles. In singles, her most recognized result of the year was in the first week of the year, at the Shenzhen Open, where she reached semifinal. In the second half of the year, she reached two quarterfinals, at the Japan Open and Guangzhou Open. On the WTA Challenger Tour, she reached final of the Dalian Open in singles, while in doubles she won the title, and so she did at the Jiangxi Open. On the ITF Circuit, she won two $75k titles in singles and one in doubles. At the end of the year, she was handed a wildcard for the WTA Elite Trophy in singles. However, she lost both matches in the round-robin group, to Madison Keys and Venus Williams.

2016-18: Top 50 year-end ranking

2019-20: First career title in singles, French Open final in doubles & career-high ranking

At the French Open, Zheng made her first Grand Slam final, alongside

; they lost against

Tímea Babos Tímea Babos (; born 10 May 1993) is a Hungarian professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. She is a four-time Grand Slam champion in women's doubles, having won the 2018 and 2020 Australian Opens, as well as the Fre ...

and

Kristina Mladenovic Kristina "Kiki" Mladenovic (; sr, Кристина "Кики" Младеновић, Kristina "Kiki" Mladenović, ; born 14 May 1993) is a French professional tennis player and a former world No. 1 in doubles. She is a nine-time Grand Slam c ...

, in straight sets. In August, Zheng won her first WTA tournament singles title at the Stanford Classic when she defeated the second-seeded

Aryna Sabalenka Aryna Siarhiejeŭna Sabalenka ( be, Арына Сяргееўна Сабаленка; russian: Арина Сергеевна Соболенко, ''Arina Sergeyevna Sobolenko'', born 5 May 1998) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She ha ...

in the final.

Performance timelines

''Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.''

Singles

Doubles

Grand Slam tournament finals

Doubles: 1 (runner-up)

WTA career finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Doubles: 13 (5 titles, 8 runner-ups)

WTA 125 tournament finals

Singles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Doubles: 3 (3 titles)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 20 (12 titles, 8 runner–ups)

Doubles: 16 (9 titles, 7 runner–ups)

Summer Youth Olympic Games

Singles: 1 (silver medal)

Doubles: 1 (gold medal)

Record against other players

Record against top 10 players

''Zheng's record against players who have been ranked in the top 10. Active players are in boldface.''

Wins over top-10 players

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zheng, Saisai 1994 births Living people Chinese female tennis players Tennis players from Shaanxi Tennis players at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics Tennis players at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in tennis Tibetan people Asian Games silver medalists for China Olympic tennis players of China Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Youth Olympic gold medalists for China Sportspeople from Xi'an Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics