Zheng Qinwen: I hope to be able to make a difference in the world tennis world

Zheng Qinwen

In August 2020, 17-year-old Chinese teenager Zheng Qinwen was ranked only 630th in the world, and she had not yet reached the final of a professional event. After a year and a half of growth and breakthroughs, Zheng Qinwen reached 77th place in this week's world rankings, becoming a Chinese women's player second only to Zhang Shuai.

Cheng attended this week's WTA Monterrey in Mexico and lost to last year's U.S. Open runner-up winner Fernandez in the women's singles round. Before departing for Mexico, Cheng gave an interview to the WTA at his training base, Barcelona.

"I think young people have to go out and fight for their dreams." "I see a lot of players my age who are a lot higher in ranking and results than I do, but I don't think there's a big gap between us," Cheng said. Deep down in my heart, I've always believed that I can do better, so I have to keep moving forward and I hope to be able to achieve something in tennis. Because I've always had this mentality, I don't feel like I should stay home or go back home. ”

Zheng Qinwen has good strength conditions, which is also the foundation of her offensive style of play. She learned the playing style of her predecessor Li Na from an early age, and watched Li Na's game video to learn. During the 2018 Wimbledon period, Zheng Qinwen received an invitation to have dinner with Li Na, along with Naomi Osaka, Wang Xinyu and Wang Xiyu.

"I remember Li Na's husband chatting with my agent and saying that I had good skills and a good level, and the only problem was that I had to learn how to play tennis!"

As a child, Zheng Qinwen studied under Carlos Rodriguez, a former coach in Haining, and trained at his online school in Beijing. To further improve his strength, Jung teamed up with former ATP 65 player Pere Riba Madrid, and the two began training on Barcelona's clay courts.

Speaking about the changes the coach has brought to himself, Zheng Qinwen said: "He taught me to be more stable, not just to play offensive. Although many people have said this to me before this, he is the only one who has the patience to repeat this to me every day until I actually engrave this sentence into my head and naturally reflect it in my own style of play. ”

Zheng Qinwen admits that he prefers to fight on clay: "In fact, I like to play on clay, and I will naturally have more patience on clay than on hard courts." For me, playing on hard ground must be offensive and fast, but when I come to clay, my mentality is to be patient, because this is clay and the ball speed will slow down. ”

In this year's Australian season, Zheng Qinwen faced the world's top 20 players in an official match for the first time, and she said she had gained a lot from the two games between Halep and Sakkari.

"To me, the two of them have similar styles of play." Zheng Qinwen said, "They are all very stable players, their pace is not very fast, and their play style is not particularly offensive. They won the game because I made too many simple mistakes in the game. Like I said, I do play offensively, but I have to be more stable. What they (Halep, Sakkari) taught me is that you can win the next game just by stability. ”

"When I got home, I thought about it a lot and recorded my thoughts. These games have given me a lot of experience playing in big stadiums, and playing in big stadiums and playing in small ball games are completely different feelings, and playing in big stadiums will make you have more emotions, and you have to deal with these emotions. ”

In the current women's tennis world, many players about the same age as Zheng Qinwen have made breakthroughs early, including last year's US Open championship runners-up Raducano and Fernandez, as well as young players like Towson and Koschowk.

'For now, these players are the best in our age group. "I hope to be able to catch up with them, and their experience has made me more aware of how to get into the top ranks," Cheng said. I will always believe that I can do better. ”

In the past two years since the outbreak of the epidemic, Zheng Qinwen has been one of the most active players in the domestic tennis world to compete overseas, and in order to ensure the safety and health of themselves, their families and team members, they often choose to drive to all parts of Europe instead of flying.

"We drove from Barcelona to Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic." Zheng Qinwen recalled, "Sometimes I had to spend 17 hours in the car, plus 22 hours of parking for dinner, and now that I look back, I can't believe I had that experience." Spending a day and a half in the car is just for a race, and not even a WTA event, it's an ITF event. But it was like an adventure for me and a good memory. ”

"Because it's not easy to be able to participate in every event, you sincerely hope that you can do well. I don't want to lose in the first round and then drive home for another 22 hours, and after spending so much time and energy on the ride, I very much want to make a difference. ”

Privately, Zheng Qinwen loves nature, the Wudang Mountains in her hometown of Shiyan are her favorite places to hike, and traditional Chinese music is also a big hobby of hers.

"Chinese songs and English songs are different, English songs have a strong sense of melody, but the lyrics are very shallow and not deep. And Chinese songs have a lot of meaningful lyrics, which makes the music itself very beautiful, and even can trigger your endless imagination, let you immerse yourself in the scene, I am difficult to describe in words, but I believe that Chinese people will definitely know what I mean! ”

Entering the Grand Slam main tournament for the first time at this year's Australian Open and winning the first Grand Slam regular tournament is undoubtedly a major milestone in Zheng Qinwen's career, but she said she is ready for a bigger breakthrough in the future.

"Before the Australian Open, I was already dreaming of being able to do what I am doing now. It's just that it didn't really happen then, and now I've made it happen, and I've always believed I could do better. ”

(Compilation/Faye Wong, Photo/Visual China)