Who is Qinwen Zheng? Meet the Chinese player who stunned former World No 1 Iga Swiatek at US Open 2026

Chinese tennis player Qinwen Zheng delivered one of her best performances as she defeated former World No 1 Iga Swiatek to reach the quarter-finals of the US Open 2026 in New York on Monday.

Zheng defeated Swiatek with a 7-5, 6-3 scoreline as the latter's inconsistent run this year continued. The result also meant that the Polish tennis star has now gone a calendar year without winning a single Grand Slam for the first time since 2021.

The Chinese player delivered a strong performance against Swiatek, who entered the contest as a six-time Grand Slam singles champion and a former US Open champion.

Who is Qinwen Zheng?

Qinwen Zheng is a Chinese professional tennis player who has reached a Grand Slam final, won an Olympic singles gold medal and climbed as high as World No 4 in the WTA rankings.

Born on 8 October, 2002, in Shiyan, China’s Hubei province, Zheng is a right-handed player who stands 1.78 metres tall. She trains in Barcelona and is coached by former Spanish tennis player Pere Riba.

Zheng began attracting attention on the WTA Tour during the 2022 season. She reached the fourth round of the French Open, made the quarter-finals in Toronto and contested her first WTA final in Tokyo. Those results helped her break into the world's top 50, while she was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year.

Her first WTA singles titles arrived in 2023. Zheng won the Palermo Ladies Open by defeating Jasmine Paolini in the final before adding another title in Zhengzhou, where she beat Barbora Krejcikova.

She also reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the US Open and finished the season ranked World No 15. The WTA subsequently named her its Most Improved Player for 2023.

At the Australian Open 2024, Zheng became the first Chinese player since Li Na in 2014 to reach the women's singles final of a Grand Slam. She, however, lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

2024 also saw Zheng clinch a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, becoming the first-ever Chinese tennis player to win gold in the history of the Games. She had beaten Swiatek 6-2, 7-5 in the semi-finals of the tournament.

She achieved a career-high ranking of World No 4 in the WTA rankings in June 2025, but her progress was interrupted by a persistent right elbow problem in 2025.

Zheng underwent surgery in July and withdrew from the US Open 2025 while recovering. The injury also kept her out of the Australian Open 2026 and contributed to a significant fall in the rankings.

However, Zheng has since bounced back strongly and will now eye a spot in the  US Open semi-finals. She will face World No 2 Elena Rybakina in the quarter-final on Wednesday.