Zheng Qinwen Pulls From Hong Kong Open, Third Straight Exit
The 24-year-old cited fatigue after a heavy schedule, but a prior elbow surgery makes the streak of withdrawals difficult to ignore.
Zheng Qinwen withdrew from the Hong Kong Open due to injury, tournament organizers announced Monday, marking her third consecutive exit since capturing the China Open title. The decision leaves the 24-year-old’s ability to finish the 2026 season in serious doubt.
Organizers confirmed the move publicly. “Meanwhile, Zheng Qinwen has unfortunately withdrawn from the tournament due to injury. We wish her a speedy recovery and hope to welcome her back to Hong Kong in 2027,” the event stated.
The timeline is short. Zheng won the China Open earlier this month, then pulled out of the Wuhan Open and the Tokyo Open before the Hong Kong withdrawal. Three straight missed events following a title run shifts the conversation from routine scheduling caution to physical durability.
Zheng addressed her condition after skipping Wuhan. “Since returning from injury, I have played a demanding stretch of tennis over the past month and a half, competing at the US Open, the Billie Jean King Cup and the China Open,” she said. “My body is feeling very fatigued after this intense run of matches.”
Fatigue carries different weight for Zheng than it does for most players on tour. She underwent elbow surgery that wrecked the end of her 2025 campaign. Attempting to play through the recovery forced her to shut down early last year. That medical history makes any current physical complaint harder to dismiss as standard late-season wear.
Her ranking provides a buffer if she decides to stop playing entirely for the remainder of the year. The China Open victory pushed her standing high enough to absorb the points lost from missing these three tournaments. With only a handful of events left on the calendar, shutting down early costs her little in terms of seeding for 2027.
Photo by Jiang Qiming/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images
Zheng reached the Australian Open final in 2024 and advanced deep into the Wuhan Open later that same year, losing both matches but establishing herself as a consistent threat at WTA 1000 and Grand Slam levels. Staying on court long enough to convert those runner-up finishes into titles now depends entirely on whether her body can hold up through a full schedule.
