Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng is taking a “short break” from the WTA Tour after having arthroscopic surgery on her right elbow.
“Now begins the recovery journey,” the world number six wrote on Instagram.
The 22-year-old Chinese player was the fifth seed at this year’s Wimbledon, but lost in the first round, following her battle with persistent pain.
The fourth and final major of the year begins at Flushing Meadows in New York on August 24.
“Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be focusing entirely on rehab – doing everything I can to come back stronger and healthier.
“This is just a short break and I see it as a necessary step toward a better version of myself on court,” Zheng wrote.
Zheng underwent the procedure on Friday and was “grateful to have it behind me”.
She won the women’s singles title at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and claimed the last of her five WTA titles at the Pan Pacific Open in Japan in October of that year.
Zheng has never won a Grand Slam title, but reached the 2024 Australian Open final, the quarter-finals of the US Open twice and the last eight of this year’s French Open.
