Wang Yafan (; ; born 30 April 1994) is a Chinese

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. In her career, she has won one singles title and three doubles titles on the

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 ...

, as well as four 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 series 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 ...

. On 7 October 2019, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 47. She peaked at No. 49 in the doubles rankings on 15 February 2016.

Career

She was born in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

in 1994. Wang Yafan started playing tennis when she was nine year old. Wang made her

debut at the 2014 Shenzhen Open, partnering

Zheng Jie Zheng Jie (born 5 July 1983) is a retired tennis player from China. In May 2009, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 15. Zheng is one of the most successful tennis players from China. She won four WTA singles titles – Ho ...

in doubles. The pair won their first-round match against wildcards Sun Ziyue and

Xu Shilin Xu Shilin (; ; born 10 January 1998) is a Chinese tennis player. Xu was born in Zhongshan, and has won five singles and six doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 6 May 2019, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 190. On 22 ...

, and defeated third seeds

Irina Buryachok Irina Buryachok ( uk, Ірина Бурячок; born 5 July 1986) is a former tennis player from Ukraine. On 14 June 2010, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 183, and on 17 March 2014, she peaked at No. 66 in the doubles ran ...

and

Oksana Kalashnikova Oksana Kalashnikova ( ka, ოქსანა კალაშნიკოვა, tr, ; born 5 September 1990) is a Georgian professional tennis player. Kalashnikova has won five WTA Tour doubles titles, three WTA Challenger doubles title ...

, before losing to eventual champions

Monica Niculescu Monica Niculescu (born 25 September 1987) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been ranked by the Women's Tennis Association as high as 28 in singles and 11 in doubles. Niculescu has won several titles: three singles and ten double ...

and Klára Zakopalová in the semifinals. In September 2014 at the Guangzhou Open, Wang was given a wildcard into the singles main draw, and she advanced to the semifinals, upsetting the top seed and world No. 20,

Samantha Stosur Samantha Jane Stosur ( ; born 30 March 1984) is an Australian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in doubles, a ranking which she first achieved on 6 February 2006 and held for 61 consecutive weeks. Also a former top ten s ...

, in the first round, and qualifiers Petra Martić and

Zhang Kailin Zhang Kailin (; ; born 28 January 1990) is a former tennis player from China. Zhang has won one doubles title on WTA 125 tournaments along five singles and 15 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 12 September 2016, she reached her best sing ...

along the way. She was knocked out by eventual champion

. Playing for the

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 ...

, Wang has a win–loss record of 9–2, as of December 2022. Wang made her career breakthrough at the 2018 Miami Open, where she reached the fourth round as a qualifier before losing against tenth seed

Angelique Kerber Angelique Kerber (; born 18 January 1988) is a German professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 1, for a total of 34 weeks, and won three major titles at the 2016 Australian Open, the 2016 US Open, and the 2018 Wi ...

, in a very tight match.

2019: First WTA title

Wang won her first ever WTA singles title at the Mexican Open in Acapulco where she defeated

Sofia Kenin Sofia Anna "Sonya" Kenin (born November 14, 1998) is an American professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) of No. 4 in the world, which she achieved on March 9, 2020. She was the 2020 WTA ...

by 2–6, 6–3, 7–5, after being down a set and a break. She achieved her best world ranking of No. 49. At the Miami Open, she defeated

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 the first round. In the second round, she clinched her first victory against a top-ten player by defeating sixth seed and world No. 5,

Elina Svitolina Elina Mykhailivna Svitolina ( uk, Еліна Михайлівна Світоліна, ; born 12 September 1994) is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. She reached career-high rankings of world No. 3 in singles and 108 in doubles. Svitolina ...

, in straight sets (6–2, 6–4). She kept on and won against 25th seed and Australian Open semifinalist

Danielle Collins Danielle Rose Collins (born December 13, 1993) is an American professional tennis player. She has reached career-high WTA rankings of No. 7 in singles and world No. 86 in doubles. Collins has won two WTA Tour singles titles, at the 2021 Palerm ...

by 7–5, 6–1, and reached the fourth round, but then lost to compatriot Wang Qiang, in straight sets.

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

''Current through the

2021 Wimbledon Championships The 2021 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. Novak Djokovic successfully defended his gentlemen's singles title to cl ...

.''

Doubles

''Current through the

.''

Significant finals

WTA Elite Trophy

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

WTA career finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Doubles: 7 (3 titles, 4 runner–ups)

WTA 125 tournament finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 5 (4 titles, 1 runner–up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 17 (11 titles, 6 runner–ups)

Doubles: 10 (6 titles, 4 runner–ups)

Head-to-head record

Top 10 wins

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Yafan 1994 births Living people Sportspeople from Nanjing Chinese female tennis players Tennis players at the 2018 Asian Games Tennis players from Jiangsu Asian Games competitors for China