Assessment Passed! Zheng Qinwen Authorized to Return to the WTA

Being the absolute leader and prominent player in Chinese tennis, Zheng Qinwen's every action is closely watched by fans. Yet, contrasting last year's Grand Slam achievements of one finalist and one quarterfinalist appearance, this year she has only managed a single quarterfinal showing (missing the US Open, exiting in the first round at Wimbledon, and second round at the Australian Open), indicating a slight dip in form.

In fact, after losing in the first round at this year’s Wimbledon Championships with a score of 5-7, 6-4, 1-6 to Czech player Siniakova, Zheng Qinwen has been sidelined. By July 17th, her name was notably absent from the Washington tournament entry list.

Two days later, Zheng Qinwen announced that she had been struggling with a persistent right elbow injury and had successfully undergone surgery. Due to the recovery process, she will miss a series of upcoming major tournaments, including the US Open.

It should be noted that Zheng Qinwen performed exceptionally well during last year’s hard-court season. She reached the women’s singles quarterfinals at the US Open (430 points), then advanced to the semifinals at the China Open (390 points), finished runner-up at the Wuhan Open (650 points), won the Tokyo title (500 points), and ended as runner-up at the Riyadh year-end final (800 points), accumulating a total of 2770 points to defend, which puts significant pressure on her ranking.

If Zheng Qinwen were to miss these events entirely, her world ranking would plummet dramatically. Fortunately, recent confirmation from the Swiss Rennbahnklinik Sports Medicine Clinic confirms that after undergoing elbow surgery there, Zheng has passed medical evaluations and is cleared to return to the WTA tour.

This means Zheng Qinwen took only about a month and a half from surgery to being medically cleared for competition, which is a remarkably smooth recovery for a professional athlete. Of course, her team now faces the important decision of choosing the right timing for her comeback. Her tentative tournament schedule is as follows:

September 16 — Billie Jean King Cup Finals (Shenzhen)

September 24 — WTA 1000 China Open

October 6 — WTA 1000 Wuhan Open

October 20 — WTA 500 Tokyo Tennis Open

Naturally, all these planned participations depend on Zheng Qinwen having a solid physical foundation. Fortunately, the clinic where she was treated has a history of treating many players, which reassures the public.

Back in 2018, Novak Djokovic underwent elbow surgery at this same clinic and made a relatively quick return to competition. Additionally, well-known players like Del Potro and Kyrgios have also had elbow surgeries there.

In summary, we eagerly await a fully revitalized Zheng Qinwen to come back to the professional circuit in robust health!(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Barbie)