Duan Yingying (; born 3 July 1989) is a Chinese former professional

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 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 ...

, and two WTA Challenger doubles titles, as well as eleven singles and three doubles titles 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 ...

. Her nickname is

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an avera ...

for her amazing forehand. On 24 April 2017, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 60. On 3 February 2020, she peaked at No. 16 in the doubles rankings.

Career

2012

Starting the year as the No. 378 in the world, Duan's ranking would improve significantly to No. 128 by the year's end. Some of the highlights of her 2012 season included winning four ITF titles at the 25k level in Wellington, Changwon, Gimcheon and Goyang. Playing qualifying at the US Open, Duan had her first experience in a Grand Slam tournament. She would win her first qualifying round defeating

Réka Luca Jani Réka Luca Jani (born 31 July 1991) is a Hungarian tennis player. She has won 24 singles titles and 34 doubles titles on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour. On 19 September 2022, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 104. On 22 Augu ...

, but would fall in the next round to

Kirsten Flipkens Kirsten "Flipper" Flipkens (; born 10 January 1986) is a Belgian professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of No. 13 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Flipkens has won one singles title on the WTA Tour, winning the 2012 T ...

. She received a wild card to the Guangzhou International and won her first

main-draw match defeating Luksika Khumkum in the first round. Duan also achieved her best results in ITF events near the end of 2012, reaching the semifinals of $100K+H Ningbo and the finals of $100K Suzhou, losing both matches to top-100 veteran

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 ...

2013

Duan was due to make her main-draw Grand Slam singles debut at Wimbledon, but withdrew to compete in the

National Games of China The National Games of the People's Republic of China (), sometimes known as the All China Games (though not to be confused with the All-China Games), is the premier sports event in China at national level. It is usually held once every four yea ...

. She made her Grand Slam singles debut in the main draw of the US Open, after winning three qualifying matches. She lost to sixth seed

Caroline Wozniacki Caroline Wozniacki (; born 11 July 1990) is a Danish former professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 1 in singles for a total of 71 weeks, including at the end of 2010 and 2011. She achieved the top ranking for the first time on 11 ...

in the opening round. During the televised commentary of her match against Wozniacki, the commentators compared Duan's game to that of former world No. 1,

Lindsay Davenport Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. Davenport was ranked singles world No. 1 for a total of 98 weeks, and was the year-end singles world No. 1 four times (1998, 2001, 2004, and 2005) ...

. They also began referring to her by the nickname of ''Duan-venport'' (段文波特) on the Chinese internet.

2015

At Wimbledon, as a qualifier, Duan defeated

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

finalist

Eugenie Bouchard Eugenie "Genie" Bouchard (; french: Eugénie Bouchard, ; born February 25, 1994) is a Canadian tennis player. At the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, she became the first Canadian-born player representing Canada to reach the final of a Grand Slam t ...

in straight sets in the first round. This was considered one of the biggest upsets of the tournament. In the second round, Duan lost to

Tatjana Maria Tatjana Maria (née Malek; born 8 August 1987) is a German professional tennis player. In November 2017, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 46, and in June 2016, she peaked at No. 54 in the doubles rankings. She has won two singles ...

in a long three-set match.

2016: First WTA title

In July, she won her first WTA Tour title at the Jiangxi International Open, defeating

Vania King Vania King (born February 3, 1989) is an American former tennis player. A former top-ten doubles player, King won both the Wimbledon and US Open women's doubles titles in 2010 with partner Yaroslava Shvedova, with whom she also reached the f ...

in the final.

2017: Elite Trophy doubles title

In the first-round match at the Shenzhen Open, Duan wasted three match points and eventually lost to first seed and world No. 3,

Agnieszka Radwańska Agnieszka Roma Radwańska (; born 6 March 1989) is a Polish former professional tennis player. She won 20 career singles WTA Tour titles, two doubles titles, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 on 9 July 2012. Her achiev ...

. At the Australian Open, she had her best Grand Slam performance to date by defeating

Rebecca Šramková Rebecca Šramková (; born 19 October 1996) is a Slovak tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of 111 in singles, achieved on 8 May 2017, and 364 in doubles, reached on 24 May 2021. On the ITF Women's Circuit, she has won ten singles tit ...

and

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 ...

to reach the third round, where she lost to former world No. 1 and eventual finalist,

Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She is ...

, by 1–6, 0–6. Duan won her first ever WTA doubles title at the 2017 Elite Trophy with

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 ...

2018: Second doubles title

Duan won her second doubles title at the Taiwan Open, playing with

Wang Yafan Wang Yafan (; ; born 30 April 1994) is a Chinese tennis player. In her career, she has won one singles title and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as four doubles titles on WTA 125 tournaments, plus eleven singles and six doubles ...

2019: French Open finalist, Wuhan doubles title

Duan and

Zheng Saisai 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), five WTA doubles titles, and reached the final of the 2019 French Open in dou ...

reached the final of the French Open, losing to

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 September, they reached the quarterfinals of the US Open, however, they were beaten by the eventual champions

Elise Mertens Elise Mertens (; born 17 November 1995) is a Belgian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in doubles. Mertens is a three-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having won the 2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open partnering ...

and

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 ...

. The following week, with Zheng unavailable, she partnered with

Veronika Kudermetova Veronika Eduardovna Kudermetova; ; tt-Cyrl, Вероника Эдуард кызы Кадыйрмәтова, translit=Veronika Edward qızı Qadıyrmätova. (born 24 April 1997) is a Russian professional tennis player. She has a career-high si ...

for the first time to win the doubles title at the

Wuhan Open The Wuhan Open (currently sponsored by Dongfeng Motor) is a tennis tournament held in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China and organized for female professional tennis players. It is one of the WTA 1000 tournaments on the WTA Tour and made its debut in t ...

, beating Mertens and Sabalenka in the final.

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Significant finals

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 finals

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

WTA Elite Trophy

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner–up)

WTA career finals

Singles: 1 (title)

Doubles: 8 (3 titles, 5 runner-ups)

WTA Challenger finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 19 (11 titles, 8 runner–ups)

Doubles: 6 (3 titles, 3 runner–ups)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Duan, Yingying 1989 births Living people Chinese female tennis players Tennis players at the 2014 Asian Games Tennis players at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in tennis Asian Games silver medalists for China Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Tennis players from Tianjin Olympic tennis players of China Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Chinese women