BEIJING, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Zheng Qinwen advanced to her second China Open women's singles semifinal here on Friday, where she faces 13th-seeded Belgian Elise Mertens, who stunned eighth seed Iga Swiatek of Poland.
Zheng defeated sixth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-3, 7-6 (6). The wild-card broke serve three times to take the opening set. After the pair swapped breaks midway through the second, Zheng came from 2-0 down to take the tie-break 8-6.
The win completes a turbulent two years for Zheng since her last China Open semifinal in 2024. She ended the year 2024 ranked fifth and climbed to a career-high world No. 4 in June 2025. But the right elbow surgery a month later sent her to a downward spiral in which she dropped out of the top 100. She is now projected back to 35th after the day's win.
"I used to think that winning a match is like drinking water. It is normal. But now I'm more grateful for every win, because I understand how much effort I have made behind every win," Zheng said.
Mertens ended Swiatek's campaign with a 7-6 (0), 6-3 win in one hour and 49 minutes. After the first 12 games went with serve, Mertens raced through the tie-break without dropping a point. Then the Belgian broke once in the second set as Swiatek, who didn't earn a single break point all match, was let down by a string of 34 unforced errors.
Swiatek's loss also sealed spots at the WTA Finals in Indian Wells for Mirra Andreeva and Linda Noskova. They will both make their debuts in the singles draw of the season-ending championships.
Women's doubles top seeds, China's Zhang Shuai and the Czech Republic's Katerina Siniakova, beat fifth-seeded Storm Hunter of Australia and Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-2, 6-2 to reach the semifinals, where they face Mertens and Russia's Diana Shnaider. Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Su-wei and Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko lost to Indonesia's Aldila Sutjiadi and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-10.
Mertens is set to contest both singles and doubles on Saturday. "Recovery is key. Eat, sleep, and repeat the same. Yeah, just focus on the singles first. That's definitely the goal," she said. ■
