Chinese women's No 1 Zheng Qinwen opened her WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai campaign on Wednesday with a nail-biting three-set win over Donna Vekic of Croatia.

Zheng, seeded seventh, edged the first set 6-4 before Vekic prevailed in a tiebreaker to claim the second set 7-6 (6).

World No 18 Zheng suffered an early break in the deciding set before breaking back to win 6-4.

The 21-year-old Zheng avenged her loss to No 10 seed Vekic in their only previous meeting in 2021.

"It took some time to find my rhythm," said Zheng, who won her first-ever WTA 500 title in Zhengzhou earlier this month.

"In the second set, she was serving really well, so we couldn't break each other. I think I got a little chance at 6-6, but at that moment she played aggressively.

"In the third set, she continued serving really well, but after I started to get more rhythm on the return, I started to feel better and better in my game by playing longer. So I'm really happy to win in the end."