WTA Finals 2024: Qinwen Zheng dominates world No. 4 Jasmine Paolini in statement win to reach semi-finals in Riyadh

React to this story

Qinwen Zheng continued her sparkling second half of the season to recover from her opening defeat to Aryna Sabalenka at the WTA Finals, moving past Jasmine Paolini to secure her spot in the semi-finals. The 22-year-old's 6-1 6-1 victory on Wednesday made her the youngest player to reach the last four of the WTA Finals in her first appearance since Petra Kvitova in 2011.

Highlights: Top seed Rublev sees off Sonego for quarter-final spot in Metz

Video credit: SNTV

Qinwen Zheng comfortably overcame Wimbledon and US Open finalist Jasmine Paolini at the 2024 WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia to book her place in the semi-finals.

The impressive Chinese player dropped only two games in her straight-sets win over the world No. 4, as she claimed a 6-1 6-1 triumph in a dominant display at the season-ending tournament.

After two wins and a loss, Zheng, 22, joined unbeaten top seed Aryna Sabalenka as the two qualifiers from the purple group.

Wimbledon Women's Singles -

'Super special' Federer moment spurs Kostyuk to Wimbledon quarter-final win

09/07/2026 at 00:03

The loss for Paolini meant she crashed out at the round-robin stage, alongside fifth seed Elena Rybakina.

"The more I played, my performances started to feel better and better on court," Zheng told Sky Sports after the match. "Even the first serve percentage, the groundstroke and the volley.

"When I lost against Sabalenka, she made me think about what I had to do in my game so I put in the effort and now the results are working. I stayed focused on serve and made Paolini play."

Olympic champion Zheng started the match - which lasted just over an hour - on the back foot as Paolini raced 40-15 ahead in a very solid opener.

The seventh seed put Paolini under some early pressure when she broke the Italian in the third game and then gained the double break to move three games ahead.

After holding to love for 5-1, Zheng wrapped up the 32-minute opener with her third successive break on the second set point following a lengthy battle on deuce.

In the second set, Paolini won her first game in seven to hold for 1-1, before Zheng posted her fourth break of the match as she stormed towards the last four.

She recorded her ninth ace of the match for another 4-1 lead and from there, it was a long way back for Paolini with Zheng in such devastating form.

An error-strewn Paolini gave up two break points in the sixth game, which Zheng took full advantage of at the first time of asking to seal another double break, and move to within a game of victory.

At match point in the decisive game, Zheng hammered down another ace to conclude her triumph in style.

- - -

Stream top tennis action live and on-demand on discovery+

Wimbledon