Paris 2024 Olympic gold medalist Qinwen Zheng has become the first athlete to appear on the cover of the Chinese edition of Vogue magazine. The 22-year-old tennis player stars in the November issue of the world-renowned fashion magazine,
“I like all the pictures, to be honest”, said Qinwen Zheng after her first WTA 1000 final in Wuhan. “Very, very special photos. Completely different from the previous photoshoots I’ve done. I like the photo they chose for the cover the most. My look is absolutely piercing on her”, added the world’s number seven.
Qinwen Zheng is enjoying the best season of her young career. After being named the WTA Rookie of the Year in 2022 and the Most Improved Player in 2023, she opened the current season with her first Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, and in the summer won her third career title in Palermo. The great form helped her to win a historic gold at the Paris Olympics, where the Chinese defeated the world’s number one Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals. Qinwen Zheng then reached her second straight quarterfinal at the US Open, played a semi-final at the WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing and the final at the WTA 1000 Wuhan Open, her first WTA 1000-level final.
Now Qinwen Zheng is on course to become the first Chinese woman in more than a decade to qualify for the WTA Finals. The top eight tennis players in the WTA ranking automatically qualify for the tournament in Riyadh, and the Chinese player is currently ranked No 7 with two weeks left in the season.
This year, Qinwen Zheng will be seeded second at the WTA 500 Ningbo Open tournament, while her direct competitor for the Finals, Emma Navarro, is third in the draw.