In a sentence

She was the sport’s first world No. 1 born in the 2000s, and for the past few years she has been the most stable ceiling in women’s singles.

Playing style

  • Right-handed shakehand, fast attack combined with loop, extremely quick up close and in transition
  • Ferocious forehand counterattacks and a steady backhand flick, with no obvious weakness on either wing
  • Calm in matches, and especially good at adjusting from behind

Career and key moments

Her breakthrough came in 2017, when she won women’s singles and doubles at her first senior international event. In 2022 she reached world No. 1 for the first time, the first player born in the 2000s to do so. At the 2023 Durban World Championships she won women’s singles, becoming the first 2000s-born singles world champion and completing a career Grand Slam at the event; she defended the title at Doha in 2025. At the 2024 Paris Olympics she and Wang Chuqin won China’s first Olympic mixed doubles gold, helped the team to the women’s team title, and took women’s singles silver. Her three straight Women’s World Cup titles, 2024–2026, made her the event’s first three-time winner, and by March 2026 she had spent 200 weeks at world No. 1.

What she left the game

She and Wang Chuqin’s generation are the first rulers of an era defined by a packed calendar and global competition. For them, staying in form through a relentless schedule matters as much as winning titles.

In a sentence: Winning steadily is far harder than winning beautifully once in a while.