Zheng Qinwen Reaches Athens Open Quarter-Finals, Aims for US Open Qualification

Zheng Qinwen fired 13 aces to ease into the quarter-finals of the Athens Open, reaching her first tour-level quarter-final in a year, while expressing her desire to become a more well-rounded player.

The Paris Olympics champion cruised past Australia’s Elena Micic 6-4, 6-1 in the second round of the WTA 250 event in the early hours of Thursday, lifting her up the WTA rankings to No 121.

Zheng, who needs to win the tournament in Greece to qualify for the main draw of the coming US Open, will face either Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, the world No 32, or France’s 204th-ranked Carole Monnet on Friday for a place in the semi-finals.

The match proved far less challenging than Zheng’s opening round win against Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, with the 22-year-old Micic registering only one main-draw win on the WTA tour and ranked outside the top 250.

The Chinese star secured an early break in the opening set. Both players then held serve until the end of the set, which Zheng won 6-4 on the strength of that single break.

Zheng broke again at the start of the second set, which quickly turned into a one-sided affair as she held and broke repeatedly to sweep the set 6-1.