Yan Zi (tennis player)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Yan during her 1st round match of the 2006 Australian Open. |
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| Country | China | |
| Residence | Chengdu, China | |
| Date of birth | November 12, 1984 | |
| Place of birth | Sichuan, China | |
| Height | 5ft 7.5in (1.71 m) | |
| Weight | 121 1/2 lbs. (55 kg) | |
| Turned Pro | February 2003 | |
| Plays | Right (two-handed backhand) |
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| Career Prize Money | $856,567 | |
| Singles | ||
| Career record: | 144-101 | |
| Career titles: | 1 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 72 (February 27, 2006) | |
| Grand Slam results | ||
| Australian Open | 2nd Round (2006) | |
| French Open | 1st Round (2006) | |
| Wimbledon | 1st Round (2006) | |
| U.S. Open | 1st Round (2006) | |
| Doubles | ||
| Career record: | 215-87 | |
| Career titles: | 8 (16 ITF titles) | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 4 (February 27, 2006) | |
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Infobox last updated on: October 23, 2006. |
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- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yan.
Yan Zi (晏紫), born November 12, 1984 in Sichuan, is a professional female tennis player from the People's Republic of China.
In 2005, she won her first WTA Tour singles title.
Currently, Yan Zi is one of the highest ranked Chinese Women's Doubles players at the rank of 4 with her partner Jie Zheng one place ahead of her at 3. In Women's Singles, she recently fell out of the top 100 to the rank of 162 after failing to defend her title at the Guangzhou International Women's Open, losing in the first round to Olga Poutchkova, 6-2 3-6 3-6.
Until January of 2002, she met with mixed results as a singles player in the lower reaches of the ITF tournament hierarchy. But that month, she reached the final of a $10,000 ITF event at Hull, losing to Nan-Nan Liu. In May, she avenged this defeat with a win over Liu in the first round of a $50,000 tournament at Fukuoka; and again in August she defeated Liu, this time in the quarter-final of a $25,000 tournament at Beijing, only to lose to Rika Fujiwara in the semi-final. In September, she qualified for the WTA Tour contest at Shanghai, only to lose in the first round. But she had reached numerous ITF quarter-finals during the year, and finished it ranked for the first time inside the world Top 300, at #299.
In February of 2003, she narrowly failed to qualify at Hyderabad, losing to Maria Kirilenko in a tight three-set match in the final round of qualifying. This year, she put in her career-best performance to date at Fukuoka, reaching the semi-final with wins over Rika Fujiwara and countrywoman Tiantian Sun, before losing to Japanese star Saori Obata despite winning more games, the scoreline standing at 6-2 6-7 5-7. In July, she qualified for a WTA event at Palermo by defeating Jie Zheng and Ivana Abramovic, then fell in the main draw first round to Italian rising star Francesca Schiavone in another three-setter in which she won more games than her victorious opponent, the scoreline this time being 6-0 4-6 3-6. The same week, she defeated countrywoman Sun Tiantian to qualify for a $50,000 tournament at Modena, and in the main draw ousted Yulia Beygelzimer and Adriana Serra Zanetti en route to a quarter-final loss. In September, she qualified for another WTA event, the Japan Open, and defeated Ashley Harkleroad in Round Two before losing, on this occasion, to Jie Zheng in the quarter-finals. In December, she reached the semi-final of a $50,000 tournament for the second time in the year, beating Tzipora Obziler in the quarter-final at Changsha before losing to another of her prominent countrywomen, Shuai Peng. And the following week, she narrowly lost in the quarter-final of the $50,000 contest at Shenzhen to future star Sesil Karatantcheva of Bulgaria, 6-3 1-6 4-6. The year had brought great improvement to Yan's singles results, and her year-end ranking correspondingly improved to 179, well within touching-distance of the higher echelons of the sport.
Unfortunately, 2004 set back the Chinese player's progress slightly, but it was the calm before the storm. The year began poorly for her with a string of early losses, although she was ambitiously targeting only WTA events now, raising the bar on the required standard for successful competition. She failed to win a first-round main draw match the entire year, despite some minor success in qualifying rounds; and ultimately the only relief she could find towards salvaging her world ranking was a retreat to ITF events late in the year. She reached the semi-final of a $25,000 tournament at Beijing in September (losing again to Jie Zheng), and the same stage at Shenzhen 2 (where she shocked Na Li in the quarter-finals, then lost yet again to Zheng). This late flourish of results was enough to limp her home to a year-end ranking of 248.
In January 2005, Yan battled her way past three high-quality opponents, Julia Schruff, Shikha Uberoi and Melinda Czink, to qualify for Gold Coast, an important WTA event, where she was removed by Tatiana Golovin of France. Then in May she beat Uberoi again after qualifying for Rabat with a win over Tiantian Sun, only to lose to Arantxa Parra-Santonja in Round Two. Then in June, she surpassed her previous career-best result, reaching the final of a $50,000 tournament at Beijing with wins over Sun and Zheng, only to lose in the final to less-feted countrywoman Li Ting. The following month, as a direct entrant to the WTA event at Modena, she defeated the much higher-ranked Marta Domachowska of Poland before losing a close three-setter to Sandra Mamic. In September, she avenged her defeat by Li Ting to qualify for Bali, only to succumb to Ting's former doubles partner Li Na in Round Two of the main draw.
On 26 September, she began competing in the WTA event at Guangzhou, this year up-rated to Tier III status, and shocked the tennis world by proceeding to win the entire tournament, having previously failed to win even one ITF singles title, and having only once reached the quarter-final stage at any WTA Tour event. To achieve this astonishing outcome, she had to produce some of her best tennis to conquer defending champion Na Li in the quarter-final, which she finally won 6-7 7-5 7-6 after an intense battle. The other matches against worthy opposition looked easy by comparison, as she crushed Marta Domachowska for the loss of just three games in Round Two, fought past impressive emerging teen star Viktoria Azarenka 6-4 6-3 in the semi-final, and was up 6-4 4-0 against Nuria Llagostera Vives in the final when the Spaniard conceded victory.
A semi-final result in November's $50,000 Shenzhen tournament capped off what had proved to be a superlative year for Yan, leaving her world-ranked 104, within the direct-entry threshold of Grand Slam events and minor WTA tournaments, and within the qualifying-entry threshold of even the more exclusive WTA fixtures.
She began 2006 by narrowly failing to qualify for Gold Coast, despite wins over Vania King and Shikha Uberoi, as the capable American Angela Haynes defated her in three sets. But she succeeded in qualifying for Sydney with stunning straight-sets victories over Eva Birnerova, Denisa Chladkova and Anastasia Yakimova, and beat the high-ranked Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-3 6-3 in the main draw first round before losing a three-set match to Francesca Schiavone, who had to struggle through a nail-bitingly close second-set tie-break to avoid a straight sets loss to Yan, only to win the final set by a more comfortable margin.
As if these scores were not enough to prove her capability to the wider world, at the Australian Open she knocked out a Top-15 player and the previous year's semi-finalist, Natalie Dechy of France, in the first round, before suffering a rare loss to Sybille Bammer in Round Two.
But the Australian Open had not seen the last of Yan Zi even then, for she was still active in the women's doubles tournament with long-time playing partner Zheng Jie, with whom she had been regularly competing at ITF events since as early as April 2000. To universal acclaim, the pairing won the Women's Doubles Title outright, and so became the first Chinese tennis players - male or female - to reach a final of a Grand Slam tournament, as well as win it. The route to the final was:
First round: def. Linetskaya/Voskoboeva 6-1 6-0
Second round: def. Dominguez Lino/Sanchez Lorenzo 6-4 6-0
Third round: def. (7) Dementieva/Pennetta 6-1 6-2
Quarterfinals: def. (4) Ruano Pascual/Suarez 4-6 7-5 6-1 (Saved three match points)
Semifinals: def. (9) Asagoe/Srebotnik 6-2 7-6 (2)
In the final, they defeated Lisa Raymond (USA) / Samantha Stosur (AUS) 2-6 7-6(7) 6-3, saving two Championship Points in the second set tiebreak, and needing only a single Championship Point of their own to claim the Title.
In their victory interview, Zheng Jie and Yan Zi thanked their parents, family and friends for their support.
The following is the transcript of the interview:
Q. How does it feel to be China's first Grand Slam winners?
ZI YAN: We feel very exciting and very happy.
Q. You lost the first set. Were you very nervous?
ZI YAN: Yeah, little bit nervous. Because first time in the center court. It's so big and so many people. So we have little bit nervous.
Q. Why did you play better in the second and third sets?
ZI YAN: Because we think is lost the first set. We just keep play. No think about the match.
Q. What did you talk about after the end of the first set?
ZI YAN: We just say, "Come on" (laughter).
Q. What do you think this will mean for Chinese tennis?
ZI YAN: (Through translation.) It will be good for Chinese tennis. In the near future, think we could be better, make a progress, improve a lot, and it can stimulate a little bit.
Q. What is your next goal, the Beijing Olympics?
ZI YAN: Is long way. Is far way.
We just do the best we both.
Q. How will you celebrate tonight? What will you do?
ZI YAN: Just have some eat just because we leave tomorrow early morning. So we need rest.
Q. Did you make a call to home, your family?
ZI YAN: Yeah, we have messaged them.
Q. Just messaged?
ZI YAN: Yes.
Q. You receive some message from them?
ZI YAN: Yeah, many. Many, many.
Q. From your parents?
ZI YAN: Yeah, parents, friend and...
JIE ZHENG: Coach.
ZI YAN: Coach.
Q. The game was televised in China?
JIE ZHENG: Yes.
Q. How long have you been playing together?
ZI YAN: Five years. Five years.
February brought more disappointing results in singles for Yan, as she lost a three-setter to Emma Laine of Finland at Pattaya, and failed to qualify for Doha and Dubai. But still, her January results and some points picked up in qualifying rounds in February had improved her world ranking to a career-best 72, just one place behind Li Na.
[edit] Wimbledon 2006
In July, she captured the ladies' doubles final at Wimbledon with longtime partner Jie Zheng. They defeated opponents Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez 6-3 3-6 6-2.
Path to the Final
1st round: def. Czink/King 6-3 6-1
2nd round: def. Husarova/Zvonareva 6-0 7-6(4)
3rd round: def. Camerin/Garbin 4-6 6-2 6-0
Quarters: def. Huber/Navratilova 4-6 6-4 6-0
Semis: def. Black/Stubbs 6-2 7-6(3)
Final: def. Ruano Pascual/Suarez 6-3 3-6 6-2
[edit] External links
| Women's Tennis Association | Top ten Asian female tennis players at the end of 2006 | |
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| 1. Shahar Pe'er (Israel) (20) | 2. Na Li (China) (21) | 3. Ai Sugiyama (Japan) (26) 4. Jie Zheng (China) (33) | 5. Shuai Peng (China) (55) | 6. Aiko Nakamura (Japan) (57) 7. Anna Smashnova (Israel) (63) | 8. Sania Mirza (India) (55) 9. Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand) (70) | 10. Yung-Jan Chan (Chinese Taipei) (74) |
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