Nothing can stop Qinwen Zheng: from the brink of defeat to China Open semi-final

The semi-final line-up is confirmed at the 2024 China Open with Qinwen Zheng set to face off against Karolina Muchova in what could be the match of the tournament thus far.

Both produced statements of their own during their respective Quarter-Finals. Both had to weather respective storms at times with Qinwen Zheng in front of her home crowd thriving. She saw off Mirra Andreeva 5-7, 6-0, 6-4 in a superb comeback win.

She came from 2-4 down in the third set to hand 17-year-old prodigy Andreeva a crushing loss after she was in such a good position. But in front of her home crowd, the Olympic gold medal winning superstar continues to provide the goods.

Andreeva took advantage of a poor start. Qinwen Zheng hit 19 unforced errors in the first set at fell 4-0 down. She mounted a comeback though serving out the set at 5-4. Andreeva snuffed out her chance breaking the serve of the Chinese ace twice to take the first set.

But the signs were there that the comeback was gathering steam as she broke Andreeva immediately and raced through the set. The 17-year-old regained the impetus at 4-2 up but the return pressure exerted told the story as Qinwen Zheng reeled Andreeva in for the win.

She is the first Chinese semi-finalist in Beijing since Wang Qiang in 2018. A finalist at the Australian Open in January, she is into her fourth semi-final of the season. She also continues to hit form with her only barren patch sitting after her Australian Open final. She has won 20 out of her last 22 matches stretching back to Wimbledon. This has included her title defence in Palermo, Olympic gold in Paris and a second US Open Quarter-Final.

She will now face Muchova who she beat in Palermo albeit it was a Czech ace who was only just returning to the sport after injury and reached her first final that week in July.