Jie Zheng |
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Zheng Jie (simplified Chinese: 郑洁; traditional Chinese: 鄭潔; pinyin: Zhèng Jié; born 5 July 1983 in Chengdu, Sichuan) is a Chinese professional female tennis player. She made her WTA rankings debut in 2000. She turned professional in 2003 and ended the year for the first time in the top 100. As of 27 July 2009, she is ranked World No. 23, making her China's and Asia's second highest-ranked women's singles player. She is the most successful player in the country's history. Her highest career ranking is World No. 15 which she achieved in 2009. This is also the highest ranking a Chinese player has ever reached.
At Wimbledon in 2008, Zheng gained recognition when she became the first Chinese player ever to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles tournament, defeating World No. 1 Ana Ivanović en route. She donated her winnings to the victims of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in her native province. She has won three career WTA singles titles: Hobart in 2005, Estoril, Portugal and Stockholm in 2006. She has also won eleven WTA doubles titles, all with Yan Zi, including Grand Slam tournaments Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Zheng Jie and her partner Yan Zi won the bronze medal in women's tennis doubles, the second time that China has won an Olympics tennis medal.
In May 2002, she won two successive $25,000 ITF singles tournaments, at Shanghai and Tianjin, right after reaching her first $50,000 tournament quarterfinal, at Fukuoka, Japan. That September, she gained direct entry into a WTA tournament at Shanghai, and reached Round Two before losing to Anna Kournikova. She ended the year as World No. 183.