Home favorite Qinwen Zheng and Belgium’s Elise Mertens will meet in the China Open semifinals following their upset wins on Friday in Beijing.
The unseeded Zheng ousted No. 6 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-3, 7-6 (6) in 1 hour and 47 minutes, and the 13th-seeded Mertens knocked out No. 8 Iga Swiatek of Poland 7-6 (0), 6-3 in 1 hour and 50 minutes.
The other semifinal at the WTA 1000 tournament pits No. 4 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia against No. 26 Nikola Bartunkova of the Czech Republic.
Zheng took command with three service breaks in the opening set, including the first game and the last. After Svitolina broke her serve to take a 4-3 lead in the second set, Zheng returned the favor in the next game. Svitolina took a 2-0 lead in the tiebreaker but lost the next four points and the momentum.
“It was a really great win for me,” Zheng said after her quarterfinal win. “I think she also play her best tennis. I’m just happy to have lot of winners during the match, and at the end, be brave in important moment. I finish with really good winners.”
Two of Zheng’s previous three WTA 1000 semifinals also came on home soil in 2024 at Beijing and Wuhan.
After plummeting from as high as No. 4 in the world rankings to No. 160 in June, Zheng credits a training block prior to the U.S. Open for her turnaround.
“What I did in that training block is still unforgettable,” she said. “I’ve been facing a lot of tough physical conditions. Not only the weather, the training, but mentally. I needed that training block.”
Zheng won her only previous meeting with Mertens, a three-setter on the clay at Charleston in April 2025.
Mertens, who upended 2024 Beijing champion Coco Gauff in the previous round, advanced to her first WTA 1000 semifinal since Dubai in 2021.
Mertens struck five aces, won 87% of the points on her first serve (33 of 38) and never faced a break point against Swiatek, who won this tournament in 2023.
After sweeping the first-set tiebreaker, Mertens collected the only service break of the match to take a 3-1 lead in the second set and marched to the victory.
–Field Level Media
