Yan Zi

Infobox Tennis player
playername = Yan Zi
晏紫


country = CHN
residence = Chengdu, Sichuan, China
datebirth = birth date and age|1984|11|12
placebirth = Chengdu, Sichuan, China
height = height|m=1.71
weight = convert|55|kg|lb st|abbr=on|lk=on
turnedpro = February 2003
retired = "Active"
plays = right; two-handed both sides
careerprizemoney = US $1,548,607
singlesrecord = 185–133
singlestitles =1 WTA, 0 ITF
highestsinglesranking = 40 (5 May2008)
AustralianOpenresult = 2R (2006)
FrenchOpenresult = 1R (2006, 2008)
Wimbledonresult = 1R (2006, 2007, 2008)
USOpenresult = 1R (2006, 2007, 2008)
doublesrecord = 293–116
doublestitles = 15 WTA, 16 ITF
highestdoublesranking = 4 (10 July2006)
grandslamsdoublesresults = yes
AustralianOpenDoublesresult = winner (2006)
FrenchOpenDoublesresult = semifinals (2006)
WimbledonDoublesresult = winner (2006)
USOpenDoublesresult = quarterfinals (2005, 2006, 2008)
updated = 6 October2008

Yan Zi (zh-s|晏紫), born November 12, 1984 in Chengdu, Sichuan province, is a Chinese professional tennis player.

Career summary

In 2005 at age 20, she won her first and only WTA Tour singles title at the Guangzhou Tier III tournament. The tournament did not have any major players.

In singles, she first reached the World Top 100 in January 2006, achieving a then career-high of World No. 72 that March before failing to defend her breakthrough run of results the previous year and dropping back outside the Top 100 that October. Her ranking had slumped to 262nd by February 2007 after a year of disappointing results, but her results then picked up again over the rest of 2007; and she regained the top 100 for the first time in ten months after a spectacular run at Canada's Tier I Rogers Cup in August, reaching the semifinals before finally being heavily defeated by World No. 1 Justine Henin 3–6, 0–6.

In doubles, her highest ranking to date is number 4 and she has won two grand slam titles partnering with Zheng Jie. While she has been good at doubles, her singles performance has been inconsistent as her form fluctuates. She has winning records against top 10 stars Jelena Jankovic (2-0), Ana Ivanovic (1-0), and Marion Bartoli (1-0).

ingles career in detail

2002-2003

Until January 2002, Yan 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 Liu Nan-Nan. 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 semifinal. 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 2003, she narrowly failed to qualify at Hyderabad, losing to Maria Kirilenko in a tight three-set match in the final round of qualifying. She put in her career-best performance to date at Fukuoka, reaching the semi-final with wins over Rika Fujiwara and countrywoman Sun Tiantian, 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 Zheng Jie 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. These defeats suggest that she quickly runs out of steam after giving it all in the first set, thereby allowing her opponent to regroup and eventually pocket the contest. 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 Zheng Jie 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, Peng Shuai. The following week, she narrowly lost in the quarterfinal 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.

2004

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, meeting only with moderate 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 Zheng Jie), and the same stage at Shenzhen 2 (where she shocked by Li Na 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.

2005

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 managed to 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, but lost 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 Sanda 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 September 26, she began competing in the WTA event at Guangzhou, this year up-rated to Tier III status, and shocked herself 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 Li Na 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.

2006

, who had to struggle through a nail-bitingly close second-set tiebreak 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, Nathalie Dechy of France, in the first round, before suffering a rare loss to Sybille Bammer in Round Two.

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.

2007

At the second round of the 2007 Canada Masters in Toronto, Canada she upset World No. 4 Ana Ivanović with a score of 6–3, 6–1 in just over an hour, even as Ivanovic had a rare off day. She then beat Eleni Daniilidou in the third round and 2007's Wimbledon's finalist Marion Bartoli (who retired while trailing 2–6, 0–3) in the quarters. Yan's run was ended in the semi-finals by World No.1 Justine Henin, who showed the door through a straight sets 3–6, 0–6 win over her.

2008

Yan started 2008 poorly, with a first round loss at the Australian Open to eventual quarterfinalist Venus Williams 6–2, 7–5. However, at the Bangalore Open she upset Maria Kirilenko saving 3 match points. Afterwards she managed to upset Jelena Jankovic in a quarterfinal, winning 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, although Jankovic did struggle with a shoulder injury. She eventually lost to runner-up Patty Schnyder 6–3, 6–4. She made her top 50 debut afterwards at No. 43.

At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Yan and her partner Zheng Jie won the women's doubles bronze medal, defeating the Ukrainian duo of Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko in the Bronze medal match.

Doubles career highlights

2006 Australian Doubles Tournament

At the Australian Open, Yan Zi was 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:

Doubles wins (14)

*¹ As of 2008, Doha is a Tier I tournament, replacing San Diego and Zurich.

Women's Doubles performance timeline

ee also

*

References

External links

*
*
* [http://yanziwanmei.blog.163.com/ Yan Zi's Blog]