The week in tennis: Zheng Qinwen and Jack Draper are on a roll
Credit to Author: D’Arcy Maine| Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2024 13:06:29 EST
What a season it’s been for Zheng Qinwen.
Entering last week’s 500-level Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, the 22-year-old had already won Olympic singles gold and the title in Palermo, and reached the final at the Australian Open and at the 1000-level event in Wuhan.
And she showed no signs of slowing down in Japan.
The top seed at the tournament, Zheng was dominant throughout the week — losing just one set — and escaped a suddenly resurgent Sofia Kenin in the final on Sunday for a 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory. Zheng had 16 aces and was never broken (and faced just one break point) in the match that lasted just under two hours.
A bag full of tricks 🪄#TorayPPO2024 pic.twitter.com/vJ701t5Q30
Having reached her first WTA final at the event in 2022, the win felt like a full-circle moment for Zheng.
“I really appreciate that I’m able to fight through and be the champion in Tokyo,” Zheng said after the match. “This is the one I wanted to get when I was 19 years old. I [fought] so hard, but I didn’t, I lost in the [2022] final. So this year, I’m just really happy.”
Zheng is now an astounding 28-4 since Wimbledon, and will be the No. 7 seed at the upcoming WTA Finals. It marks her first time qualifying for the prestigious year-end event, which gets underway on Nov. 2 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and few will bring as much confidence or momentum to the tournament.
While Kenin lost in the final, she still had much to feel good about. The 25-year-old American has largely struggled since winning her only major title at the 2020 Australian Open, and was ranked No. 155 entering the Pan Pacific Open. But after reaching the final, she is now back in the top 100 at No. 88.
Here’s what else you might have missed from around the tennis world last week:
Zheng wasn’t the only 22-year-old who cemented their breakthrough season with another title over the weekend. Jack Draper, the top-ranked British player who reached his first major semifinals last month at the US Open, earned the second trophy of his career on Sunday with a 6-4, 7-5 final victory over Karen Khachanov in Vienna.
Draper took control early and even jumped out to a commanding 4-0 lead in the second set. Khachanov then won five consecutive games, and a deciding set looked all but certain before Draper found a way to regain focus and close out the match. Draper’s elation was evident as he fell to the ground once the match was over.
Nothing short of sensational ⚡️
Magnificent @jackdraper0 dazzles his way to the title in Vienna! #ErsteBankOpen | @ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/mZaDFj2Hyt
“It got really tight there, but I stayed solid and in a good mental frame,” Draper said during the trophy ceremony. “Luckily I was able to come through, it was a relief. To win my first ATP 500, it feels incredible. I am incredibly happy and so proud of myself and my team. It’s for moments like this, so I am going to enjoy it.”
Draper is now ranked a new career-high of No. 15.
On Thursday, Maria Sharapova and Bob and Mike Bryan were named as the 2025 class for the Tennis Hall of Fame. The three retired stars were told the news by Kim Clijsters, the Hall’s president and member of the Class of 2017, and will officially be inducted during a ceremony in Newport, Rhode Island, in August.
The Ultimate Honor in Tennis is calling ☎️
A very special welcome to the Class of 2025 ✨@Clijsterskim | @MariaSharapova | @Bryanbrothers pic.twitter.com/hW2OyvYwcZ
In an interview with ESPN last week ahead of the official announcement, the Bryan brothers reflected on the honor and what it meant to them to share such an incredible accomplishment with one another. The identical twins have won 119 career titles together, including 16 majors and Olympic gold, and spent 438 weeks jointly ranked No. 1 in doubles.
“There’s an unbreakable bond that twins have and it is the reason why we chose doubles,” Bob said. “It’s the reason why we probably stayed on tour for 23 years just because we love doing it together. We love traveling together, we love practicing together, and now we both live in Florida, we’re close.
“Our families share many moments, and now we get to have this kind of journey to Newport together with the culmination of the ceremony. There’s nothing cooler than to do it as family, and that just makes every experience extra special. This is going to be a highlight for us. We’re thrilled, we’re pumped, we can’t wait. It’s going to be magical.”
The musically inclined twins celebrated the distinction in true Bryan brothers fashion — by performing The Script’s “Hall of Fame” on piano and drums.
Olga Danilovic arrived at the Guangzhou Open ranked No. 86 and unseeded, and had not won a WTA title in over six years.
But it turns out neither odds nor expectations mattered much for the 23-year-old Serbian. Danilovic turned in her best performance of the season with five straight wins — including a 6-1, 6-0 rout over No. 5 seed Diane Parry in the Round of 16 — and won the second title of her career and her first on hard court.
In the final, facing American qualifier Caroline Dolehide, Danilovic was dominant from the start and seemingly wanted to leave nothing to chance. She needed three match points but largely cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory.
Danilovic wins her first Hologic WTA Tour title since 2018! 🙌#GuangzhouOpen pic.twitter.com/3g5GK2yQDW
“I’m so happy [about] the way I played the whole week, the whole tournament,” Danilovic later said. “I’m so proud of myself and my team. I showed what I can do and proved it to myself, I think, the most. So I’m so happy and very excited to be finishing the season this way.”
Following her impressive week, Danilovic, who was congratulated by fellow Serbian Novak Djokovic as well as several of her peers on Instagram, is now up to her highest-ever ranking of No. 52.
It truly was a great week for the underdogs and the unexpected. In addition to Danilovic’s triumph, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard became the lowest-ranked champion in Basel at the Swiss Indoors tournament since the event was introduced on tour in 1975.
Entering the event ranked No. 50 and having lost eight of his previous nine matches, the 21-year-old Frenchman rattled off one remarkable win after another — including over No. 8 seed Felix Auger Aliassime in the Round of 16 and No. 4 seed Holger Rune in the semifinals — to advance to Sunday’s final.
Taking on Ben Shelton, the No. 6 seed, Mpetshi Perricard matched Shelton’s trademark big serving and notched 22 aces for the 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory in just 87 minutes. And if that doesn’t impress you enough, not only was Mpetshi Perricard’s serving performance on fire on Sunday, he didn’t drop his serve all week, winning all 60 of his service games and facing break point just three times throughout his run. As Shelton aptly commented to his opponent on Instagram later on Sunday, “Too good big homie.”
It marked Mpetshi Perricard’s first 500-level trophy, his second ATP title of both his career and 2024, and the culmination of an incredible season. He started the year ranked No. 205 and now is No. 31.
“My goal [this season] was to win a 250 or a 500, but to win both is amazing,” he said after the final. “Of course, I’m focused on what I can improve in my game, a lot of things in training. The work paid [off], and I’m really happy.”
A tennis match delay because of weather is nothing new. But fog-like conditions interrupting a match indoors might be a first — and that’s exactly what happened ahead of Friday’s quarterfinal match in Basel between Shelton and Andrey Rublev.
As the two players warmed up on the court, a mysterious Halloween-esque smoke filled the air of the arena. Play was halted before it could begin, and the chair umpire explained to the crowd that they wanted to wait to see if the air would clear. Within moments, Shelton decided to take matters into his own hands as he vigorously waved his towel into the air in hopes of helping dissipate the fog. Rublev couldn’t help but laugh from his chair and the television commentators jokingly analyzed Shelton’s towel-waving motion.
Have you EVER seen anything like it?!?! 🤣
Play suspended in Basel due to fog? @BenShelton #SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/Td3Zax6BaY
The air did eventually clear and play got underway. All that towel-waving didn’t seem to tire Shelton out as he won the match 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4, and of course ultimately advanced to the final.