Zheng Qinwen ‘tried my best’ in gruelling WTA Elite Trophy final defeat by Beatriz Haddad Maia
- Chinese tennis No 1 loses longest straight-sets match of the season 7-6, 7-6 to Beatriz Haddad Maia in Zhuhai
- ‘The score was very close. I can admire myself very much. I feel I also brought a very exciting game,’ Zheng says
Zheng Qinwen missed out on securing what would have been the biggest title of her career after a gruelling straight-sets loss to Beatriz Haddad Maia in the final of the year-end WTA Elite Trophy on Sunday.
World No 18 Zheng went down 7-6, 7-6 after 2 hours and 51 minutes – the longest straight sets match of the WTA season – at the Hengqin Tennis Center in Zhuhai.
Bidding for a third title of the season having also won silverware on home soil at the Zhengzhou Open this month, the 21-year-old failed to take three set points in the first-set tiebreaker.
Zheng, who also won Asian Games gold in September in Hangzhou and was on an eight match win streak, led 2-0 in the second-set tiebreaker. But she lost the next five points and her Brazilian opponent never looked back.
“The score was very close,” Zheng said in an on-court interview. “I can admire myself very much. I feel I also brought a very exciting game. I hope that all the audience could enjoy this game. Although I lost, my opponent actually played very well. I can only say that I tried my best.
“I particularly enjoy playing on this court. The audience in Zhuhai, you can see they really enjoy tennis and understand the rules. I can feel everyone’s enthusiasm.
“I want to thank my team even though we lost. Thank you for always accompanying me and helping me improve.”
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For eighth seed Haddad Maia, it was a third career tour title, with the world No 19 maintaining her perfect record this week with her fourth consecutive straight sets victory.
Her semi-final win over 17th-ranked Daria Kasatkina followed her opening upset victory over second-seed Madison Keys and then Caroline Garcia to win the group.
It is Haddad Maia’s first title on hard courts and first since Birmingham in 2022.
Her performance in Zhuhai was a welcome return to form for the 2023 French Open semi-finalist who had only one win in three previous tournaments as part of the tour’s Asia swing.
“I was trying to be as aggressive as I was during this week,” Haddad Maia, who will now rise to No 11 in the next WTA rankings update, said after her win.
“My mentality was very important. I was trying to be patient in the moments things were not going the way that I wanted. It’s a very special week for me. When I came to Asia, I had stitches in my fingers in the first round of Beijing and now I’m finishing the season with a trophy in my hands.”
The final was the first meeting between Haddad Maia and Zheng, both of whom have reached career-high rankings during 2023.
Zheng, was just the second Chinese player to make the final of the WTA Elite Trophy after Wang Qiang finished as runner-up to former world No 1 Ashleigh Barty in 2018.
The 12-player tournament was the first postseason event on the women’s tour. It featured the 11 highest-ranked singles players who did not qualify for next month’s WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico.
China’s Zhu Lin, whom Zheng beat in the semi-finals, was the final entry as a wild-card.
