With the conclusion of the United Cup and Brisbane Station events, the new season's Australian Open has arrived, starting with qualifying matches on January 6th and officially welcoming the main draw on the 12th, which will continue until the 26th. This year at the Australian Open, Zheng Qinwen became a guest at the countdown ceremony and also took a photo with the championship trophy.
Last year, Zheng Qinwen reached the Australian Open final but ultimately lost to Sabalenka, finishing as the runner-up. Despite this, she still achieved her best performance in a Grand Slam event. Returning to Melbourne after a year, Zheng Qinwen naturally hopes to claim the championship trophy.
According to the Australian Open's prize money scheme, the singles champion can receive a record-breaking prize of 3.5 million Australian dollars (approximately 15.92 million RMB).
However, there have been no changes to the point allocation for Grand Slam events. Among them, before participating in the Australian Open, Zheng Qinwen had 1,300 points deducted from last year's results, and now she must focus on maintaining her points.
Final points and rankings at the end of 2024:
- Sabalenka: 9,416 points
- Swiatek: 8,295 points
- Gauff: 6,530 points
- Paolini: 5,344 points
- Zheng Qinwen: 5,340 points
- Rybakina: 5,171 points
- Pegula: 4,705 points
- Navarro: 3,589 points
- Kasatkina: 3,368 points
- Krejcikova: 3,214 points
Latest rankings after deducting points based on last year's Australian Open results:
- Swiatek: 7,665 points
- Sabalenka: 7,156 points
- Gauff: 5,608 points
- Paolini: 5,069 points
- Rybakina: 4,503 points
- Pegula: 4,406 points
- Zheng Qinwen: 4,040 points
- Navarro: 3,231 points
- Hollins: 3,076 points
- Kasatkina: 3,033 points
From the above data, we can see that after participating in last year's year-end finals, Zheng Qinwen's total points increased to 5,340, ranking her fifth in the world. She was only 4 points behind Paolini in fourth place. If she were to win the year-end championship, she could surpass Paolini and rise to fourth in the world.
According to the tennis world ranking scoring rules, before participating in the Australian Open, Zheng Qinwen must first deduct 75 points from last year's United Cup, which will be replaced by another result of 60 points. Additionally, she must deduct the 1,300 points from last year's Australian Open runner-up finish, totaling 1,315 points to be deducted. This means her latest points will be 4,025, causing her ranking to drop from fifth to seventh, still within the top ten. The players ranked ahead of her are Swiatek, Sabalenka, Gauff, Paolini, and Rybakina.
Among them, Sabalenka's situation is similar to Zheng Qinwen's, securing the year-end world No. 1 ranking. Due to winning the Australian Open last year, she will have 2,000 points deducted, along with points from her Brisbane Station victory, resulting in her latest points being 7,156.
The Australian Open singles championship awards a maximum of 2,000 points. If Zheng Qinwen were to ultimately win the trophy, her points could reach a maximum of 6,040, likely allowing her to surpass Paolini, Rybakina, and Pegula, rising to world No. 4. However, the top three players in the world—Gauff, Swiatek, and Sabalenka—are currently beyond Zheng Qinwen's reach.