FACTBOX-Tennis-Australian Open finalist Zheng Qinwen

QINWEN ZHENG Age: 21 Nation: China WTA Ranking: 15 Seeding: 12 Grand-Slam titles: 0 ROAD TO FINAL First round: beat Ashlyn Krueger (U.S.) 3-6 6-2 6-3 Second round: beat Katie Boulter (Britain) 6-3 6-3 Third round: beat Wang Yafan (China) 6-4 2-6 7-6(8) Fourth round: beat Oceane Dodin (France) 6-0 6-3 Quarter-finals: beat Anna Kalinskaya (Russia) 6-7(4) 6-3 6-1 Semi-finals: beat Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine) 6-4 6-4 EARLY LIFE * Born in Shiyan, Zheng started playing tennis at the age of seven.

Factbox on Australian Open finalist Zheng Qinwen, who beat Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska 6-4 6-4 in the semi-finals (prefix numbers denote seeding). QINWEN ZHENG

Age: 21 Nation: China

WTA Ranking: 15 Seeding: 12

Grand-Slam titles: 0 ROAD TO FINAL

First round: beat Ashlyn Krueger (U.S.) 3-6 6-2 6-3 Second round: beat Katie Boulter (Britain) 6-3 6-3

Third round: beat Wang Yafan (China) 6-4 2-6 7-6(8) Fourth round: beat Oceane Dodin (France) 6-0 6-3

Quarter-finals: beat Anna Kalinskaya (Russia) 6-7(4) 6-3 6-1 Semi-finals: beat Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine) 6-4 6-4

EARLY LIFE * Born in Shiyan, Zheng started playing tennis at the age of seven. She considers Li Na, the former Australian Open and French Open champion, to be her idol. Zheng moved to Li's hometown, Wuhan, when she was eight years old to train. She moved to Beijing three years later and currently trains in Barcelona.

CAREER TO DATE * Made her ITF debut in 2018 at age 15.

* Played WTA qualifying events at Miami, Wuhan, and Tianjin in 2018. * Qualified for the WTA main draw in 2021 at Palermo, where she made it to the second round and ended the year ranked 143.

* Qualified for all four Grand Slams in 2022. * Reached the semi-finals as a qualifier at the Melbourne Summer Set 1 in 2022, beaten by Simona Halep.

* She later beat Halep in the second round at Roland Garros in 2022 but was defeated by Iga Swiatek in the fourth round. * In 2022, she also achieved two Top-10 wins, beating Ons Jabeur at Toronto and Paula Badosa at Tokyo. However, she was defeated by Liudmila Samsonova in the final at Tokyo. Ended the year ranked 25th.

* Won her first WTA titles at Palermo and at the Zhengzhou Open in 2023. *Defeated Ons Jabeur in the 4th round of the 2023 U.S. Open before losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-final.

*Finalist at the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai, Semi-finalist at Abu Dhabi in 2023. *Ended 2023 at rank 15, making her first top-20 finish.

*Became the second Chinese player to reach the Australian Open final after Li Na, who won the tournament in 2014.