NEWCOMER

Of The Year

China’s rising tennis star Zheng Qinwen was named newcomer of the year for 2022 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour.

Zheng, 20, rose over 100 places in the WTA rankings with a steady string of results and broke into the top 25 by the end of 2022.

“She reached her first WTA final at the WTA 500 Toray Pan Pacific Open (Tokyo), the semifinals of the WTA 250 Melbourne Summer Set 1, the last eight at the WTA 1000 level National Bank Open presented by Rogers (Toronto) and posting her best Grand Slam result by reaching the Round of 16 at Roland-Garros,” the WTA said of Zheng, who hails from Shiyan in Hubei province.

“Zheng Qinwen is the second Chinese woman to win a WTA Player Award after Zheng Jie earned the Comeback Player of the Year honour in 2008,” the WTA added.