Zheng Jie

Zheng Jie
China, 25 years old
Charity Queen

First Chinese player ever to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles tournament in Wimbledon in 2008 and only the second time a wild-card player has reached the women’s semifinals in the Open era, Zheng Jie donated her winnings to the Sichuan earthquake victims.

She auctioned her gear and the money was made to establish a court in Dujiangyan, a badly-torn city along the Yangtze River. On the one year anniversary of the earthquake, she also invited Shifang, about 40km away from Wenchuan, the hardest-hit town in the May 12, 2008 earthquake disaster, and taught the school children there how to play tennis.