Original title: The ranking of players in the China Tennis Association has risen steadily.
Beijing** reporter Li Yuanfei.
On January 8, the two major professional tennis organizations, ATP and WTA, respectively released the second phase of the 2024 singles world rankings. The celebrities of the China Tennis Association who competed in the international arena showed their good performances in the first week of the new year, and many of them approached or brushed up on their personal rankings.
Thanks to reaching the quarterfinals of the women's singles at the US Open last year, winning the women's singles title at the WTA 500 Zhengzhou station and finishing runner-up in the women's singles at the Zhuhai Classic, Zheng Qinwen's singles world ranking has risen from 24th on October 9 last year, and has continued to brush up to new professional highs. By the time the WTA released her first singles world rankings for 2024 on January 1 this year, she was ranked 14th. Zheng Qinwen has only lost to world No. 1 Swiatek in three women's singles matches at the United Cup in Perth this week, moving her up one spot to No. 13 in the singles world rankings this week, just one step away from the China Tennis Association's second-highest singles world rankings held by Wang Qiang at 12th.
Zhang Zhizhen, who played in the United Cup with Zheng Qinwen, defeated world No. 31 Djere in the United Cup, losing to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and world No. 9 Hurkacz. This week, he climbed five places to No. 53 in the ATP singles world rankings, just one spot shy of his own record for the highest ranking of a male player in the China Tennis Association.
And if you only look at the tour results in the first week of the new year, the best performers are undoubtedly Shang Juncheng and Wang Xiyu. Wang Xiyu reached the quarterfinals of the women's singles at the WTA 250 Auckland station, and her world ranking rose nine places to 62nd this week, although there is still some distance from her personal best of 49th, but the increase in 9 places is the most among the top 100 players in the WTA rankings. In the first week of the new year, Shang Juncheng won three top 50 players in the world at the ATP 250 Hong Kong station, including American Tiafoe, who is ranked 16th. This week, his ATP singles world ranking soared 41 places to No. 142, setting a new personal high.
Also setting a new personal high is Yuan Yue, who is ranked 73rd in the WTA singles world this week. Her previous personal best singles world ranking was 74th. In addition, this week's world No. 33 Zhu Lin, No. 34 Wang Xinyu and No. 87 Bai Zhuoxuan are also close to their personal best singles world rankings.
It is worth mentioning that the above-mentioned Chinese Tennis Association players have already qualified for the singles main draw of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of 2024, and the vast majority of them stopped in the first two rounds of the Australian Open singles last year, and some did not qualify. Therefore, from the perspective of earning points to improve the rankings, this year's Australian Open singles competition is both an opportunity and a challenge for them.
*:Beijing**.