No rest for the weary! Zheng Qinwen's off-season kicks off with new Audi sponsorship and Gatorade event

While many of the WTA's top players have been enjoying some rest and relaxation in the little more than a week since the WTA Finals concluded in Riyadh, there's been no R&R in the early days of the offseason for Zheng Qinwen. The Olympic champion has already unveiled a new sponsorship deal with Audi in China, attended the Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition for it, and appeared at a sponsor event for Gatorade.

Zheng teased her jam-packed offseason schedule after losing the final match in Riyadh to Coco Gauff, where she fell agonizingly short of becoming just the eighth first-time participant to win the year-end title. She led Gauff by a set and a break in the final match, and also had a 5-3 lead in the third set, before losing in a third-set tiebreak.

But there would be little time to dwell on her defeat, nor celebrate the historic season she just accomplished, Zheng said in an interview with Chinese tennis writer Zhang Bendou, due to a myriad of upcoming off-court commitments.

"In the off-season, other players go to Maldives or Hawaii," she said, "but I'll have too many commercials to shoot and no vacation."

The first of those was being unveiled as the new face of Audi in China on Nov. 15, which had previously been teased a week prior on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo. The automaker posted a trailer for its newest cars narrated by Zheng, and teased that its new spokesperson would be making an appearance at the annual expo that has been held for the last 20 years.

Zheng was photographed at the event with vehicles from the brand's new electric car line designed exclusively for China as the automaker hopes to attract younger customers, as well as Audi executives.

Read more: Zheng Qinwen becomes first athlete, male or female, to cover Vogue China

Two days later, and 16 hours north, the world No. 5 appeared at a Shanghai event for Gatorade, for which she's been an ambassador in China since the start of last season. She smiled broadly in new product collateral, photographed in a sleek white pansuit.

With a sponsorship portfolio that also includes on-court apparel deals with Nike and Wilson racquets, a testimonee for Rolex watches, as well as regional deals with Lancôme  cosmetics and McDonald's, the Olympic champion's net worth is growing at an exponential rate, which only appears set to continue after a 2024 season in which she became the second Chinese woman to ever reach a Grand Slam singles final, and first Olympic singles tennis champion from her country.

But i's something Zheng said earlier this year that she's prepared for.

"It you want to balance the time and the team has to work well, especially I think the manager has to communicate good with the head coach, because of course commercial is important, but at the end we are tennis player to perform as well on court," she said at the US Open. "This our priority.

"My priority ... is always performance well [sic] in tennis, but, I mean, if the opportunity come ... I will do it, because it's part of job. But where my passion is and where I want to put all my energy is on the tennis court."