65 Facts About Zhang Zhizhen

Zhang Zhizhen is a Chinese professional tennis player.

Zhang Zhizhen reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No 31 in July 2024 and a doubles ranking of No 47 in July 2024.

Zhang Zhizhen has won three singles and two doubles titles on the ATP Challenger, and two singles and two doubles titles on the ITF Futures Tour.

Zhang Zhizhen won a silver medal in mixed doubles alongside Wang Xinyu at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

In 2021, Zhang became the first Chinese man in the Open Era to play in the main draw at Wimbledon.

In 1996, Zhang Zhizhen was born to a sports family in Shanghai.

Zhang Zhizhen's mother was a member of the Shanghai shooting sports team and later worked at the Shanghai bureau of China Telecom.

Zhang Zhizhen chose tennis because the swimming teachers were strict, partly because of their responsibility of ensuring swimming safety.

Zhang Zhizhen underwent surgery two months later, and his form dropped significantly until May 2017.

In 2016, Zhang Zhizhen signed with the Croatian tennis agent Ivan Ljubicic.

Zhizhen Zhang began his career in Chico, California, playing on the ITF Futures Tour.

Zhang Zhizhen lost in the first round of the following two futures tournaments he entered.

Zhang Zhizhen would skip half of the 2014 ITF Men's Circuit, finishing the year with only thirteen participations in senior-level events, including a quarterfinal showing at a Futures tournament in Cyprus.

Zhang Zhizhen's ranking bolstered by positive results on the 2015 ITF Men's Circuit, Zhang began entering tournaments on the 2015 ATP Challenger Tour, though he failed to win any main-draw matches in his first few months on the higher-level Challenger Tour.

Zhang Zhizhen then made his ATP tour debut at the 2015 Shenzhen Open.

Zhang Zhizhen played in the qualifying draws of both the Beijing Open, and the Shanghai Masters, though he failed to breach the main draw of either venue.

Zhang Zhizhen rounded out the year with a few early losses in Challenger tournaments.

Zhang Zhizhen inexplicably missed the first four months of the 2016 ATP World Tour, and when he did arrive, he returned on the 2016 ITF Men's Circuit.

Zhang Zhizhen lost early through much of April and May, though he did manage to play in both a 2016 ATP Challenger Tour event, and the qualifying draw of the ATP Tour 250 tournament in Nice, the Open de Nice where he lost a third set tiebreaker to future world No 1, Daniil Medvedev, in the second round of qualifying.

Zhang Zhizhen finished the year outside the top 800, a drop of four-hundred ranking places from the previous year.

Zhang Zhizhen's ranking hovered 800 from September, 2016, to May 2017, when the Chinese youngster, still only twenty years old, reached a third Futures final, this time in Lu'an, China.

Now ranked just outside of the top-700, Zhang Zhizhen continued his ascent, winning the Shenzhen Futures tournament, and losing in the finals of another futures tournament in China two weeks later.

Zhang Zhizhen then began competing on the 2017 ATP Challenger Tour, and for the first time, he had no need to play qualifying draws to enter said Challenger Tour events.

Zhang Zhizhen spent the first half of 2018 losing early on both the 2018 ATP Challenger Tour and the 2018 ITF Men's Circuit.

Zhang Zhizhen reached a sixth futures final, losing to Jelle Sels in Casina.

Zhang Zhizhen then lost to Andy Murray in Shenzhen, retiring due to injury halfway through the third set.

Zhang Zhizhen recovered in time for both the 2018 China Open, and the 2018 Shanghai Rolex Masters, although he failed to win matches in either.

Zhang Zhizhen started his 2019 season with back-to-back quarterfinal showings on the 2019 ITF Men's World Tennis Tour.

Zhang Zhizhen's fifth quarterfinal was a defeat; he fell to Bai Yan at the 2019 Chengdu Challenger.

Zhang Zhizhen won the 2019 Jinan International Open, beating top one-hundred player Soonwoo Kwon en route.

Zhang Zhizhen reached the second round of both the 2019 Zhuhai Championships and the 2019 China Open, with the latter being a loss to top-five player and eventual champion Dominic Thiem.

Zhang Zhizhen concluded October with a second Challenger crown, ousting Li Zhe in the final round of the 2019 Shenzhen Longhua Open.

Zhang Zhizhen skipped most of the already abridged 2020 ATP Tour season.

Zhang Zhizhen played and lost in the first round of the 2020 Tata Open Maharashtra, and failed to progress past qualifying at the 2020 Dubai Tennis Championships.

Zhang Zhizhen started his 2021 year with a first-round loss at the 2021 Istanbul Challenger, and a second round loss in Dubai, ending his hopes of qualifying for the 2021 Australian Open.

Zhang Zhizhen fell short of qualifying for the 2021 French Open, thus concluding his clay season.

Zhang Zhizhen became the first male Chinese in the Open Era to qualify at Wimbledon.

Zhang Zhizhen was only the fourth Chinese man to play singles in the main draw of any Grand Slam since 1968, with the others being Wu Di at the Australian Open in 2013,2014 and 2016, Zhang Ze at the Australian Open in 2014 and 2015, and Li Zhe at the 2019 Australian Open.

Zhang Zhizhen finished the year outside the top three-hundred, despite peaking just outside of the top-one-hundred in the ATP rankings earlier in the season.

Zhang Zhizhen then made a Challenger quarterfinal for the third week in a row, losing to former top-ten player and 2017 Rolex Paris Masters champion Jack Sock in the final eight.

Zhang Zhizhen failed to reach the Wimbledon Championships' main draw again, losing in the second round of qualifying to Daniel Masur.

Zhang Zhizhen returned to the Challenger tour after his loss to Masur, opting to play the 2022 Platzmann-Sauerland Open.

Zhang Zhizhen reached the final without dropping a set, eliminating both third-seeded Manuel Guinard and seventh-seeded Pablo Cuevas en route.

Zhang Zhizhen next travelled to Braunschweig with a special exemption entry into the Brawo Open.

Zhang Zhizhen would reach the semifinals in Braunschweig, defeating world No 51, Pedro Martinez, and 2018 French Open semifinalist Marco Cecchinato.

Zhang Zhizhen entered the 2022 Internazionali di Tennis Citta di Trieste Challenger as a qualifier, defeating fifth-seeded Marco Cecchinato and eighth-seeded Alexandre Muller en route to the final, where he lost to Francesco Passaro despite clinching the first set.

Zhang Zhizhen re-entered the top-200 for the first time since he injured himself at the 2021 Hamburg European Open.

Zhang Zhizhen reached a second straight Challenger Tour final at the 2022 Internazionali di Tennis del Friuli Venezia Giulia in Cordenons, Italy upsetting fourth seed Pavel Kotov in the first round, and Alexandre Muller in the semifinals to reach the final.

Zhang Zhizhen rose to world No 157 in the ATP rankings following Cordenons, his highest ranking in two and a half years.

Zhang Zhizhen lost to fifth seed Tomas Machac in the final, despite winning the first set, six games to one.

Zhang Zhizhen's run elevated his ranking to No 138, placing him within two spots of his career-high ranking.

Zhang Zhizhen made his debut at the US Open, qualifying for the main draw alongside his friend Yibing Wu, making history for his country.

Zhang Zhizhen narrowly missed being the first Chinese male national to win a major main-draw match in 63 years after losing to Tim van Rijthoven, failing to convert seven match points in the third set.

Zhang Zhizhen lost to fifth seed Andrey Rublev in the second round.

Zhang Zhizhen then defeated 21st seed Denis Shapovalov for his first top 30 win, to reach the third round of a Masters for the first time in his career.

Zhang Zhizhen saved three match points in his first top 10 win over eight seed Taylor Fritz to become the first Chinese man in history to reach the quarterfinals at a Masters tournament.

Zhang Zhizhen was just the second Chinese player in history to beat a Top 10 player, after Wu Yibing, who defeated Fritz earlier in the year.

Zhang Zhizhen lost to Aslan Karatsev in the quarterfinals in two sets.

Zhang Zhizhen made his Major debut in doubles as an alternate pair with Victor Vlad Cornea.

Zhang Zhizhen then went on to reach his first ever ATP semifinal, defeating Daniel Altmaier in straight sets.

Zhang Zhizhen made his debut at the 2024 United Cup as the top ATP player of team China and the highest ranked man from an East Asian country in history.

Zhang Zhizhen recorded his first win at the 2024 Australian Open over Federico Coria, before losing to 21st seed Ugo Humbert.

Zhang Zhizhen won the silver medal with Wang Xinyu in mixed doubles at the 2024 Summer olympics.

Zhang Zhizhen defeated Buyunchaokete to reach his first ATP Tour singles final.

Zhang Zhizhen was hope to become only the third Chinese titlist in the Open Era after Wu Yibing, together with Shang Juncheng, who was a finalist in Chengdu in the same day but lost to Marin Cilic the next day.