In this screengrab taken from a video on the offical website of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), Zheng Qinwen (bottom) of China hits a return to Donna Vekic of Crotia during a match at the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai in China on Sept 25, 2023.

ZHUHAI, China - China's ace player Zheng Qinwen opened her WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai campaign on Wednesday with a nail-biting three-set win over Donna Vekic of Croatia.

Zheng, seeded seventh in the Zhuhai event, swept two games after a 4-4 tie to win the first set 6-4.

The second set saw the two players battle intensely until the tiebreak before Vekic won 7-6 (6).

In the third set, she (Donna Vekic) continued serving really well, but after I started to get more rhythm on the return, I started to feel better and better in my game by playing longer. So I'm really happy to win the match in the end.

Zheng Qinwen, Chinese professional tennis player

Zheng suffered an early break before she broke back in the eighth game and stormed to a strong finish to win the final set 6-4.

The 21-year-old Zheng avenged her loss to the No. 10 seed Vekic in their only previous meeting in 2021.

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"It took some time to find my rhythm," Zheng said after her win.

"In the second set, she was serving really well, so we couldn't break each other. I think I got a little chance at 6-6, but at that moment she played aggressive.

"In the third set, she continued serving really well, but after I started to get more rhythm on the return, I started to feel better and better in my game by playing longer. So I'm really happy to win the match in the end," she added.

Zheng won her first-ever WTA 500 title in Zhengzhou earlier this month, reaching her career-high ranking of No. 18.

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Also on Wednesday, No. 6 seed Daria Kasatkina outclassed No. 1 seed Barbora Krejcikova 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, and No. 9 seed Caroline Garcia beat No. 2 seed Madison Keys 6-3, 7-6(3).