Bombed out 8 ACE, resolved 3 match points, and when gradually adapted to the rhythm and found the feel and state, Zheng Qinwen still failed to stage a reversal and continued to create surprises. On January 19, the Australian Open women's singles began the second round of competition, Zheng Qinwen faced the No. 5 seed of the tournament, Greek Maria Sakkari, after bravely stopping the decline of 9 consecutive sets, saving 3 match points at the end of the match, and breaking the opponent's serve to win the game, or 1-6, 4-6 defeat. Blocked out of the top 32, Hubei girl ended her first adult grand slam trip. However, this is more of a starting point full of expectations.
The night court, Margaret Court Centre, is obviously a big scene for Zheng Qinwen, who played in the Australian Open for the first time from the qualifiers to the second round of the main round, and the opponent is also a fierce character. In 2019, Sakkari won the first WTA singles title of his career, and in 2020, he crossed the TOP20 threshold for the first time. Last year, she reached the final four of the Grand Slam women's singles twice, and this year is the fifth time the Greek has reached the second round of the Australian Open.
After the game began, Zheng Qinwen quickly fired two ACE shots, and there was no danger of saving the first serve. Subsequently, Zheng Qinwen made a series of unforced mistakes, swallowing the invisible egg and handing over the first set 1-6 with sakkari, now ranked eighth in the world, in full swing. Before playing against Sakari, Cheng had won four straight games at Melbourne Park, three of which were in full sets. During the session, she applied for a medical suspension for a simple treatment of her left foot.
In the second set, Zheng Qinwen lost three more sets in a row, and it was not until the fourth set that he completed the guarantee, stopping the decline of losing nine consecutive sets. In the last moment, Zheng Qinwen did not lose his temper in the case of 2-5 behind, and even the warranty broke back two sets, saving three match points successively, and the continuous blasting of ACE also caused a lot of trouble for Sakkari. However, when it came to the serve that had to be saved after 4-5, Zheng Qinwen failed to grasp the set point, and finally lost another set at 4-6, missing the third round.
Big game field, small attempts. Hubei girl's first Australian Open trip, many people use "outbreak" to describe. But Zheng Qinwen felt that before this, he had been constantly honing and accumulating, and this time it was only thick and thin.
Zheng Qinwen, born in 2002, has a similar growth path to Li Na's. She studied under Li Na's enlightenment coach Xia Xiyao, trained under the famous Hubei coach Yu Liqiao, and later studied under Carlos. This also makes her style of play similar to Li Na's, but the stability is not good. Two years ago, Zheng Qinwen said that although the style of playing defense is easy to produce results early, he still prefers offensive play because offense can better dominate the course of the game.
On the field, Zheng Qinwen is highly focused and full of killing, which is also the regular mode of her daily training. Last year, after winning the highest level of his career title, he made a "oolong" because he did not know the title of the new French Open. Afterwards, she explained that she had been busy preparing for and competing during that time, and basically did not go online or read the news, so she did not know who the champion of the new French Open was.
At the start of the 2021 season, she won three ITF tournaments and won her first career WTA Tour. In early 2022, she reached the semi-finals of the WTA Tour for the first time in her career, losing to former world number one Halep. She then made it all the way from qualifying to the second round of the Australian Open women's singles, climbing from 287 at the beginning of last year to 89th.
Zheng Qinwen's idols are Federer and Djokovic. She said: "Federer's ball is to attack more, and he always does it when he needs to defend, and I often watch his game videos and learn how he plays. Djokovic has a very stable mentality in the game, which is something that I need to learn very much. ”
Stopping the second round of the Australian Open, Zheng Qinwen said: "For me, this is just a starting point. "When the attack and defense are reasonably combined, coupled with a strong mentality, hubei girls must look forward to the future."
Text/Hubei Daily reporter Ma Mingyu
Photo: Xinhua News Agency