The petite player is grateful her comeback from an ankle injury has been so successful after it sidelined her for six months in 2007.

In the 2008 season, Zheng lifted her rankings from just outside the top 200 to the year-end ranking of 25, making history for Chinese tennis by reaching the Wimbledon semifinals and grabbing a doubles bronze medal at last August's Beijing Olympics.

"Reaching No 17 is already a big accomplishment and totally beyond my expectations," Zheng said.

"I feel blessed I am able to come back from injury and play even better than before."

Her ankle injury, she says, helped renew her love for the game.

"I realized how much I like tennis during the injury time. It touched me deeply and made me cherish the opportunities in life more.

"I want to play as long as possible and do my best so that I won't have any regrets after retiring."

No matter how modest she is, Zheng won't give up a real opportunity to vault over Czech No 16 Dominika Cibulkova, who is very close to her in the rankings, in the coming month.

"If you are not moving forward, in some level, you are moving backwards," Zheng said.

As for the doubles, in which she has won two grand slam titles, Zheng and long-time partner Yan Zi haven't registered any notable wins since leaving the state-run system, along with Li and Peng Shuai, to became self-managed players at the end of last year. Each of the four players now has her own coaches, schedules and management and spend much less time together.

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