Qinwen Zheng booked her place in the semi-final of Queen’s after defeating home hope Emma Raducanu in straight sets.
The Briton had enjoyed a promising tournament in London, earning a comfortable win over Cristina Bucsa in round one, and again in the second round, where Raducanu defeated Rebecca Sramkova.
A first career face-off with the number one seed Zheng, however, proved too much for the 22-year-old, who lost 6-2, 6-4.
Following the end of the clash on the Andy Murray Arena, the world number five made a prediction about where she sees her rivalry with Raducanu headed in the future.
Qinwen Zheng makes prediction about Emma Raducanu
After the match, Zheng said of her opponent: “You know, I always respect her, because I always believe she’s a really good player.
“I [have] known her since we were juniors, and I know she also speaks Chinese, and sometimes I will talk Chinese with her.
“It was a really tough opponent for me, so I gave everything on the court as I could today, and it’s not going to be the last time I meet her. For sure, I will meet her more time in the future, and then let’s see how it goes.
On the match, Zheng said: “Well, you know, it was tricky the second set, because she called the physio after the first set.
“I feel, you know, my focus was dropping that moment, and I gave her a lot of easy mistakes, especially I remember in my first game, the second set, I didn’t put any first serve on court.
“Suddenly, that was really tough, but I’m just happy I got my focus back. Didn’t wait until the third set. It was a great change for me.”
Emma Raducanu’s ranking heading into Wimbledon
Raducanu is currently 37th in the world, and will need to be at least WTA number 32 to be seeded for Wimbledon.
There are two more WTA 500s set to take place before the third Grand Slam of the year, in the form of the Berlin Open, and the Bad Homburg Open.
Raducanu played in neither of those events last year, meaning there will be a chance for her to pick up some valuable points ahead of the championships in South West London.
She made the Round of 16 at Wimbledon last year, before losing to Lulu Sun over three sets on Centre Court.
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