US Open Prediction: Qinwen Zheng (7) vs Donna Vekic (24)
September 1, 2024 at 02:00 PM EDT
The Line: Qinwen Zheng -217 / Donna Vekic +171
China’s No. 7 seed, Qinwen Zheng, will play Croatia’s No. 24 seed, Donna Vekic, in the fourth round of the 2024 US Open. The match is scheduled for Sunday, September 1, 2024. Here’s our Qinwen Zheng vs Donna Vekic prediction. This article will also contain a Qinwen Zheng vs Donna Vekic pick.
Qinwen Zheng vs Donna Vekic Preview
Qinwen Zheng started her Grand Slam season on a high note, reaching the Australian Open final and losing to Aryna Sabalenka. She can still end on a similar note at the US Open after reaching the fourth round for the second year in a row.
Zheng has survived two scalps along the way, first against the resurgent Amanda Anisimova in her opening match and then Erika Andreeva (older sister of Mirra). But she played her best tennis against the big-hitting Jule Niemeier in the third round, where she dropped just three games. She will face Donna Vekic in a rematch of the gold medal match from the Paris Olympics, which the Chinese player won.
Donna Vekic, for her part, has addressed her recent losing record at the US Open in which she lost in the opening round of her last three visits.
Vekic has reached the second week in New York without dropping a set, accounting for wins over Kimberly Birrell, Greet Minnen, and most recently, Peyton Stearns. The win over the American was a tight one, with Vekic prevailing 7-5, 6-4.
Qinwen Zheng vs Donna Vekic Head-To-Head
• Zheng leads their head-to-head 2-1, winning their last meeting in early August at the 2024 Paris Olympics gold medal match.
Qinwen Zheng vs Donna Vekic Prediction
Zheng is the golden girl of Chinese tennis right now, and she’s carved out a career worthy of being in the Hall of Fame after becoming the country’s first-ever Olympic tennis champion. But I look at the odds here and can’t help but like Vekic’s chances. Change of surface from clay to fast hard will give her groundstrokes more bite, and we’ve seen the Croatian striking the ball with venom in the first week. Zheng can struggle to contain such a caliber of players (Anisimova threatened the upset in the first round), and this could be the seventh seed’s downfall.