Zheng Qinwen rises to new career-high ranking of No. 4 following best career run on grass

Until a week ago, all of Zheng Qinwen’s best career results came on hard and clay—including her first Grand Slam final at the 2024 Australian Open, and her gold medal run at the Paris Olympics.

But last week, she may have started her triple-threat era.

Having never even been to the quarterfinals of a grass-court event beforehand, the 22-year-old Chinese trailblazer made it all the way to the semifinals of Queen’s Club—a WTA 500 event, no less.

And with that run in London last week, Zheng is rewarded on the rankings today, rising from No. 5 to a new career-high of No. 4, switching spots with Jasmine Paolini, who dips from No. 4 to No. 5.

The Top 3 are Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula.

Zheng is just the second woman born in 2002 or later to reach the Top 4 on the WTA rankings, after the 2004-born Gauff.

WOMEN BORN IN THE 2000s TO REACH THE TOP 4:

• Bianca Andreescu [born in 2000, career-high No. 4 in 2019]
• Iga Swiatek [born in 2001, career-high No. 1 in 2022]
• Coco Gauff [born in 2004, career-high No. 2 in 2024]
• Zheng Qinwen [born in 2002, career-high No. 4 in 2025]

Zheng has now reached the quarterfinals or better at six of the last seven tournaments she’s played, and if she keeps it up, she could rise even higher on the rankings, as she has very few points to defend until the US Open—between now and New York last year her only deep runs were back-to-back clay-court titles at Palermo, a WTA 250-level event, and the Olympics, which didn’t offer any ranking points.

Zheng isn’t the only player who makes a notable move on the WTA rankings today after a noteworthy run at Queen’s Club.

Amanda Anisimova, who ended Zheng’s run in the semifinals, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, continues her climb towards the Top 10, rising from No. 15 to No. 13 after reaching the final in London. She was ranked No. 36 at the start of the year, and wasn’t even in the Top 100 at this time last year.

And Tatjana Maria, who went all the way to the biggest title of her career at Queen’s Club, soars from No. 86 to No. 43—the biggest jump in the Top 100, and one spot off her career-high of No. 42.

Her career-high ranking would probably have been significantly higher had there been ranking points at Wimbledon in 2022, where she reached the first Grand Slam semifinal of her career.

The 37-year-old German, who’s also a mother of two, took out four straight Top 15 players in the last four rounds at Queen’s Club—Karolina Muchova, Elena Rybakina, Madison Keys and Anisimova.

And finally, American teenager Iva Jovic makes her Top 100 debut, soaring from No. 115 to No. 89 after capturing the first WTA 125K title of her career on the grass courts of Ilkley, Great Britain. The 17-year-old is now the youngest player in the current WTA Top 100.