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| Shuai Peng showing off the inaugaral Zhonhong Jiangxi International Women's Open trophy |
Country: Nan Chang, China
Surface: Hard court
Draw: 32 players
Tier: 125K
Ranking points: 160 WTA ranking points
Peng Shuai was the top seed at this week’s inaugaral WTA tournament in China, but the final showed us a glimpse of another youngster that shows great promise. This 18-year old, like Shuai, also hails from China. She is looking to follow in their country’s most famous ladies Champion, Li Na’s, footsteps. Fangzhou Liu or Liu Fangzhou as said in China, surname first and name after, I may be a little confused myself at which comes first, started last week at a ranking of #422 and this morning she stands at #273. Her run to the final catapulted her up 149 spots in the right direction.
Fangzhou started with a bang when she won the first set tiebreak against the very accomplished Zheng Jie, tournament 2nd seed. At 2-0 down in the second set, Zheng’s retirement set the tone for the rest of Fangzhou’s matches and by the time she got to the semi-finals she had only dropped one set. In the semi-final she defeated another youngster, Luksika Kumkhum from Thailand, with ease. Kumkhum has made a few headlines herself before, when she defeated Petra Kvitova in the first round of this year’s Australian Open.
In the end Shuai was the last woman standing, becoming this tournament’s first Champion. Peng won the first set with ease and then Liu upped her game to take the second set and stood at break points in the first game of the third set... but Shuai had had enough... firing down 2 aces, she saved the breakpoint and then two more before finally winning the game. It was game for game all the way to 4-3 and then Peng played some phenomenal points whilst on the defensive. This created enough pressure for Fangzhou to crack in when she missed 2 essential forehands to hand Peng the decisive break.
Shuai served it out in the very next game to win her first WTA title after 6 tries. The 28-year old from Hunan, China had the following to say.
“I’m very glad to become a WTA 125K champion for the first time,” Peng said. “There were so many people staying with me right until the end and I’m really thankful for the passion they all showed today.
“I think it’s been a good week for Chinese tennis and I really hope that it will help more and more people to take up tennis.”
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