zheng jie

Zheng is one of the most successful tennis players in China's history. She has won three WTA singles titles at Hobart in 2005 and Estoril and Stockholm in 2006. She has also won twelve doubles titles, eleven of them with Yan Zi including Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2006. Her career high doubles ranking is World No. 3. Zheng has reached the singles semi-finals at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, becoming the first Chinese player to reach the semi-finals at a Grand Slam, and at the 2010 Australian Open. She also won the bronze medal in doubles with Yan Zi at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was the first Chinese player to defeat a World No. 1 (by defeating Ana Ivanović at Wimbledon in 2008) as well as the first Chinese player to reach the top 15.


Zheng was coached by Jiang Hong Wei, China's national women's tennis team head coach, but she is now coached by her husband Zhang Yu, who is also her hitting partner. They became close during the period after her severe ankle injury. Zhang Yu was there for her during this time, taking cared of the injured Jie. Zheng is a Rolex testimonee together with Roger Federer and Ana Ivanović, and on the advisory staff of Yonex and uses their rackets. She wears clothing by Anta and appears in their advertising campaigns.


Zheng's game is characterized by consistency and intellect. She is not the strongest player, but makes up for this with her careful thinking about where to place her shots and willingness to change game plans if a strategy is not working. Her shots are very well placed and can be quite deep in the court, making Zheng an excellent defensive counterpuncher. Zheng has good foot speed which allows her to keep points in play that normally would be winners; so few shots get by her that some admiring journalists have begun calling her "the Great Wall of China." Having played many years in doubles, Zheng is also a comfortable net player. Zheng has powerful ground strokes that are often deep enough to push opponents off the baseline. Zheng's best shot is her backhand. Zheng's main weakness is her serve; however she is sometimes able to neutralize her weak serve with her quickness or by serving to the body or to the opponent's weaker groundstroke.

Zheng first competed at the Hong Kong Tennis Classic, a team exhibition tournament. As captain of Team Asia-Pacific, Zheng was defeated by former World No. 1's Maria Sharapova, 6-7 6-4 6-2, and by Venus Williams, 6-3 6-2.
Zheng began her tour season at the Moorilla Hobart International, where she was the seventh seed. In the first round, Zheng faced Kaia Kanepi. In a match lasting over two-and-a-half hours, Zheng outclassed her opponent 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4). In the second round, Zheng faced her compatriot, Peng Shuai. Zheng finished her opponent off quickly, defeating Peng by 6-2, 6-1. Zheng was defeated by eventual tournament champion Alona Bondarenko, 7-5 7-5, in the quarterfinals.



Zheng next competed at the Dubai Tennis Championships as the sixteenth seed, but was upset in the first round by Alicia Molik in three sets. Next competing at the first-ever Malaysian Open, Zheng reached the second round as the third seed, where she was heavily defeated by Chang Kai-Chen. However, Zheng won the doubles title at the event with Yung-jan Chan, defeating Anastasia and Arina Rodionova in a championship tie-break.