Remember Wang Yafan in 2019? That year, at the age of 25, she achieved a series of seemingly incredible results, and the world ranking once reached a career-high 47. Solid bottom-line technology, tenacious play style, coupled with a refreshing and clean appearance, make her the new favorite of Chinese fans.
A brief review of Wang Yafan's "brilliant achievements" in 2019:
On March 3, 2019, in the women's singles final of the WTA Acapulco station, Wang Yafan defeated Kenning 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 to win the championship. And this Kenning is the American player who won the Australian Open the following year and reached the final of the French Open.
At the Miami Crowns held in mid-to-late March, Wang Yafan once again played a masterpiece and reached the round of 16 in one fell swoop. In the first three rounds, she won with two straight sets, against Mladenovic, No. 5 seed Svitolina, and No. 26 seed Collins, with a lot of gold. In the quarter-finals, she was defeated 2-0 by Wang Qiang, who had a stronger upward momentum at that time.
In the Asian season after the US Open, Wang Yafan reached the top 4 of Seoul and Suzhou, the top 8 of Tianjin, the second round of China Net and Wuhan, and the world ranking reached the highest 47th place in his career on October 7. In the post-Li Na and Zheng Jie era, Wang Yafan seems to be able to usher in the second round of Chinese tennis with Wang Qiang, Zhang Shuai and Zheng Saisai.
In February 2020, Wang Yafan failed to defend his title at Alpulco, losing to Wang Xiyu in the first round, and the world ranking fell to 84th. But then in Monterrey, she reached the top 8 and did not show a particularly pronounced downward trend.
What really changed her athletic career was the pandemic that followed. After the Monterrey match, tennis tournaments were suspended, and Wang Yafan missed the opportunity to further open up the situation during the golden period of his career. Wang Yafan and her husband lived a sweet two-person life in the offseason, probably because the family life was too sweet and delayed some training, and when she came back, Wang Yafan was already a winner.
In April 2021, Wang Yafan returned to the Tour, but ushered in a wave of embarrassing 9 consecutive losses! After Wimbledon, she chose to train domestically like most Chinese girls, and hastily ended the 2021 season. During this period, a large number of newcomers emerged in the tennis world, including Zheng Qinwen, a 19-year-old rookie in the mainland, and Wang Yafan gradually became the "front wave" of being ranked on the beach.
In 2022, returning to the international arena again, Wang Yafan's world ranking has fallen to 350 outside, and can only start from 25K and below. She occasionally brings surprises, such as a runner-up in a 25K stop at the end of February, and the world ranking has risen to near 310, slowly approaching the standard of the WTA 250 qualifying tournament.
However, on March 19, she played an incredible game: she swallowed a double egg against The 16-year-old Mattenko, who was 900 out of the world ranking. Although the opponent is a junior world number one, as an experienced veteran who has troubled tour champions, it is really strange to be beaten 6-0 twice.