Qinwen Zheng has already had her comeback disrupted after withdrawing from the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Zheng played her first tournament in five months at the Qatar Open last week, after struggling with an elbow injury that she underwent surgery on last year.
There were not many expectations of the Olympic champion following her lengthy absence, but Zheng impressed in Doha.
However, after Zheng lost to Elena Rybakina at the Qatar Open, she has now withdrawn from her following tournament in Dubai.
Qinwen Zheng withdraws from the Dubai Tennis Championships
There have been many high-profile withdrawals from the Dubai Tennis Championships this year, including both the top two players on the WTA Tour missing the event.
While Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek have chosen to miss the event for scheduling reasons, Zheng has been forced out of the tournament for another reason.
Zheng was scheduled to play lucky loser Peyton Stearns in her first round match at the Dubai Tennis Championships, but she has now withdrawn.
Citing illness as her reason for pulling out, Zheng has faced a setback in her bid to climb back up the WTA rankings.
Following Zheng’s withdrawal from the Dubai Tennis Championships, Stearns will now play lucky loser Magdalena Frech instead.
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While this is disappointing for Zheng, she will not suffer too much in terms of her ranking as she lost in her only match at the Dubai Tennis Championships last year.
However, it does mean that Zheng now has to wait over two weeks before she can return to competition again.
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Zheng will now head to the States for the sunshine double of Indian Wells and the Miami Open.
While she will not suffer in terms of her ranking after withdrawing from Dubai, Zheng has a significant number of ranking points to defend next month.
After reaching the quarterfinals of both Indian Wells and the Miami Open last year, Zheng has 430 points to defend across the two tournaments.
If Zheng is unable to defend a substantial portion of those ranking points then she will likely fall outside the top 30 of the WTA rankings for the first time since 2022.
The first of those two tournaments is at Indian Wells, which gets underway on March 4.
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