BEIJING — Qinwen Zheng notched her maiden WTA 1000 title with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Mirra Andreeva in the China Open final in Beijing on Sunday, sealing the triumph with a tournament-winning ace before lying on the court to soak up applause from a raucous home crowd.
The 2024 Olympic champion was far from exceptional on serve, landing only 37.9 per cent of first serves according to Tennis Abstract, yet she remained ruthlessly efficient behind it, winning 72.7 per cent of first-serve points and 63.9 per cent on second serve to deny Andreeva any sustained pressure on the return. For Andreeva, the straight-sets defeat marked her second loss in a WTA 1000 final this season following disappointment in Madrid, while Zheng became the eighth different winner of a WTA 1000 event this year alongside Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff.
Zheng was candid about her level afterwards, saying: “I don’t know. I haven’t paid attention to my opponent ’cause I just like mostly focus on myself because I feel today I play so bad tennis,” Zheng said. “I just feel I play like 20 per cent to 30 per cent of my level. I feel if I could play better, match will finish faster than that. Actually, I cry thousand times every time when I had a chance, like in 5-4 I didn’t take my game. Starting third set slow, yeah. But I think I could see a bit maybe she got some pain in her body. I’m not sure. Or maybe she’s just tired. I remember the moment when I’m tired in French Open, I cry also, yeah. But usually I don’t cry during the match, I cry after the match.”
The pair had met previously at the China Open in the 2024 quarter-finals, where Zheng also prevailed 5-7, 6-0, 6-4 despite landing only 49 per cent of first serves, converting nine of 18 break points on Andreeva’s serve before losing in the semi-finals to Karolina Muchova. Andreeva had every opportunity to attack Zheng’s serve in the final but failed to capitalise, a factor that ultimately cost the Russian the match.