Pan Pacific Open: Zheng Qinwen crowned Tokyo queen as winning streak continues

Zheng Qinwen will head into the WTA Finals as one of the favourites for the title given current form and she has got a lot of matches in to even attempt to qualify. But she has bookended her season with the Pan Pacific Open title.

Defeating Sofia Kenin who nearly didn't make it to the tournament after being seen in floods of tears during her doubles withdrawal with injury seemingly an issue. But she made it to the final and battled hard against the World No.7. It was 7-6(5), 6-3 in the end as she defeated the American wildcard.

She needed one hour and 52 minutes to seal it in her first career meeting with the 2020 Australian Open champion. It is her first hard-court title of the season and her fifth title of her short career. It also sees her career come full circle.

Back in 2022, she reached her first final in Tokyo. There she was defeated by Liudmila Samsonova. So she carries an 8-1 record overall. She sits at 28-4 since Wimbledon and 12-2 on the Asian swing. She was flawless on serve in Sunday's final. She never was broken and faced only a single break point. She slammed down an incredible 16 aces bringing her total to 406 for the year.

Kenin was bold though. She erased all five break points in the first set and forced her into a tie-break. But Queenwen put the foot on the gas. She edged out the tie-break after 67 minutes. Kenin got her sole break point at 4-2 but Qinwen wiped it away and at 5-3, she earned a winning chance and took it straight away with a superb volley. Crown her Queen and with many of the top names falling down the rabbit hole in terms of form going into Riyadh, it could be the Chinese ace who benefits yet.